My mother-in-law has AD and is living in an apartment in an assisted living residence in Seattle. She was diagnosed @ 5-6 years ago and in the last year we have noticed that her short term memory is significantly shorter that it had been. My husband and I live in Utah, one daughter lives in Seattle and the other daughter in Portland. My husband calls her almost every day and they have always been very close.

We moved her into a facility close to one daughter @ a year ago and about 7 months ago hired Helping Hands to visit her daily for 4 hours to prepare her breakfast and lunch and make sure she took her pills. She regained the weight she had lost after the move to the residence but complained about having someone intrude on her privacy so we recently arranged for her to stay in the apartment she loves and move from independent care to assisted living so someone would bring her breakfast and invite her to lunch daily. She knows how to get to dinner in the dining room and goes faithfully though she can't remember anyone see eats dinner with. She can also bath and dress herself though someone is now giving her pre-packaged meds with breakfast and lunch.

A few days ago she phoned her son who she continues to know and is close with and was very confused because she believed she was in one of her daughter's houses and she wanted to go home (to Ogen where she was born). She was quite upset, and while my husband talked with her, I used another phone to call the residence and ask someone to visit her apartment and see if she was there. She was and she gradually began to see things in the apartment that were familiar but she still didn't know where she was. Though the anxiety subsided gradually, she was still confused for a couple of days. On day three when I called she was happy and remembering happy conversations that we'd had days earlier and was clearly at home in her apartment.

We think that she'd fell asleep and had a bad dream then called when she woke up. This was particularly striking since she hasn't been able to make a phone call for over 2 years. She has had other bad dreams before but this was frightening to her (and to us) and the result lasted much longer than previously. How should we interpret this? Is this an indication that AD is progressing more quickly? We are trying to keep her in a familiar apartment that she loves as long as possible because any change, like moving to the residence; having Helping Hands come in; stopping Helping Hands and using the residence staff; even visits from family she loves can confuse her. We just don't know if this is a surprising but isolated incident or the beginning of a downward spiral. Can you help us understand what's going on?