Drawing the line

The last few days have been wild a bit stressful.

Mom has been doing so well for so long now that it is surprising when she begins to "act out" (for lack of better words).  In her finest moments Mom is opinionated and wound quite tightly - that's simply her personality.  No one has EVER said that Mom is a "laid back" type of person.  I get that and I'm find with it.  I understand that it takes all kinds of folks to make up our world.  BUT, the last few days have found her VERY short-tempered, snappy, and down-right difficult.  When this happens then I'm called upon to decide whether she is simply being "her self" or if her behavior is dementia related.  That's where things get tricky.  

It's really hard to know where to draw the line.

I think there has been a bit of both going on.
If her issues are dementia related then I'm supposed to call her neurologist.  At that point he may choose to change the doses of her meds, or change the type of medications.  If Mom is simply "being Mom" then it would be a mistake to have her meds changed in any manner.

Mom says she stayed awake all one night worrying about her money, which translates into "she is afraid my sister and I are stealing from her".  *sigh  She talks about it endlessly.  I try to assure her that's not the case, then I try to "redirect".  She will not be "redirected". . .She snipes.  She complains.  She is sure there is no one in this world who can be trusted. . .She worries that the doors are not all locked at night...She is unhappy when I talk to a neighbor while standing in the driveway (probably because he is a male). . .Then, just when I'm sure this is all dementia related, we were going into the post office and she opened the door and motioned for me to go ahead of her, saying, "See, I can be nice when I want to". . .Then after complaining non-stop while we were running errands, she is silent for a while.  As we drive into the garage she says, "See, I didn't gripe at all on the way home.".  These statements lead me to believe she knows full well what she's doing and saying.  Yes, Mom is quite the character.  I know she gets bored at times and sometimes I think the griping and acting out is simply born out of the boredom.  

There again, it's hard to know where to draw the line.
So instead of calling the doctor, I've decided to simply continue as I've been doing, and draw that line some other day.