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For the past few years, my mother has developed a medical condition that has gotten slightly, but progressively worse. The worst case scenario is Alzheimer's disease, but it could be any number of things really. It might not seem like a lot, but it can take an awful lot out of you when your own mother calls you by her brother's name 99% of the time, sometimes not realising and sometimes catching herself on.

She has refused to acknowledge it, I presume through fear that if she were to visit her GP that the news would not be good, but supposedly because she claims she was unaware that it was happening. Personally, I think she was lying to us because if something were to be found to be wrong, it is unlikely she would be allowed to babysit her grandchildren again. Myself and other close family members have skirted around this issue for far too long in my opinion, but today, she actually went to see the GP.

There's no definite solution at the moment, but he's aware of her mental state and to a lesser extent, our concern. Tests have been ordered and will undoubtedly run on for a bit, but this is a good, positive step. When I visited my parents' place earlier, she was in excellent form. I think the fact that the GP was unable to directly come out and say "it's Alzheimer's" was a great relief to her, even if subsequent tests might diagnose that.

Obviously I'm hoping that it's simply a dietary thing or a deficiency of some sort, but we'll see once the tests start and the results come in.