@sonya_nc

My mom started having TIAs when she was around you mom's age. They do not show up on brain scans. Basically diagnosed on symptoms. A blood thinner is all that may help. My mom kept having them and the older she got the more frequently she had them. Mom passed away this past August of brain hemorrhage from a major stroke at age 92 1/2. She had a mild stoke in 2016 then another in December of last year and one this past June. She had many TIAs also known as mini-strokes in between. Mom would have horrible headaches and her vision was effected with both the TIAs and mild strokes. With the mild strokes the symptoms went away slower and usually speech impairment with both too. The speech usually sounds like a film being run backwards or a baby babbling. They always effected her left side and after the mild strokes her left side remained weak. If mom had the headache and vision problem for a few hours I did not take her to the ER, but if she had the droopy mouth and speech problem or other stroke symptoms I took her. They can use a clot busting drug if need, but it has to be done within a certain amount of time after stroke symptoms begin.

My mom was in a nursing home from this past January until her death in August. With covid going on we were not able to visit her at the nursing home since March.. we could during the 3 hospital stays she had at the hospital. This last time she had symptoms several days before they took her to the hospital. I would call and no one from 3 phone number would answer me or my brother. I called every day. I finally got through using my husbands phone very late in the day. I think they were using caller ID to dismiss me calling and my brother too. It was the activities director that answered the phone and she was always good to my mom. She had not seen mom in a few days. She taking the phone to mom and she said she had heard that my mom has a UTI and was a little confused and having trouble speaking. I told her mom usually only gets confused with a UTI and no speech problem. She came into the room and discovered my mom could not talk.. just making noises and listing to one side. She told me she was going to have the nurse evaluate my mom and she would call me back. They called me back in a few minutes and said she was being taken to the hospital. There is no neurosurgeon they could get her to for the brain hemorrhage and I was told they probably would not do anything because of her age if they could find one... we have such great medical care in South Georgia 😬. I am thinking they would not do anything because of her heart... she had Mobitz type 2..bradycardia. There was nothing that could be done.. nor did mom want anything done and we transferred her to hospice and me and my oldest brother took turns staying with her until she passed.

Some other things that may come up... Sometimes with a urinary track infection or even pneumonia she would be disoriented. That tends to happen in the elderly. So if she disoriented or just not acting like herself she may have an infection of some kind. Dehydration can also cause them to act a bit differently. Getting mama to drink enough was always hard. My husband helped me take care of her for two years. It broke our hearts to place her in a nursing home, but I could not physically take care of her being she could not walk after the stroke. The nursing home was for rehab, but she did not respond to it.

If I can help you in any way just ask.

ZeeGee