Grandma's COPD denial & Dementia.

[RyanD98]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible, as there is so much i could talk about. I'm 19 years old, and will be heading off to uni in 8 months which is why i am making this post now.

My grandma has been a life-long smoker, and around 2 years ago was told by her GP that she has COPD after some serious breathing problems. She kind of just brushed the diagnosis off & forgot about it, while continueing to smoke.

This has all come to a climax after around 5 months ago she woke up one morning and could hardly breath. She had to go to hospital in an ambulance and ended up being hospitalised for 4 days.

I should mention that since being diagnosed with COPD, her memory has been getting progessively worse. It's now at a point where very basic questions really confuse her. She has also started coming out with random and often mean quick sentences, which she has never done in the past.

I believe that the dementia-like symptoms are probably related to a lack of oxygen to the brain caused by the COPD (there are many studies on this).

I'm just 19, and am really the only one in the family who bothers to research COPD or dementia. Everyone has tried to get her to quit smokeing, but she won't. She also say's that she does not have COPD, does not remember ever being diagnosed with it, and blames all the symptoms on hayfever (yes, even in winter!).

I convinced my mum to take grandma to a memory clinic, with the hope of getting her on some drugs which would slow the progression of the dementia-like symptoms. After not being able to answer questions like; 'who is the prime minister?' Or 'what month is it?' She refused to take part in any more of the consultation, and just left.

I'm now at a loss as to what to do. Like my uncle say's, it's like she's on a suicide mission.

At the end of all the stress of this, because i am the ONLY person trying to understand it, i had a serious panic attack while sitting in a cafe one day around 4 months ago, and after getting some professional help have been told i have severe anxiety & am now on meds for it.

Like i say, i'm at a loss. One side of me says all we can do is let her do what she wants to do and let it go from there, but another side say's something reallyneeds to be done.

Once i go off to uni in 8 months, i will be no longer be able to help.