My dad is 71 and has been the lynch pin of our family all of his life. He has built a large family business with my mum and they still go to work everyday. Mum is of healthy mind and body! In the last few years dads memory has progressively got a worse and worse. It started with him not being able to spell words he used to spell easily then, as time went on, he would forget things like where he was in his conversation etc.
A couple of years ago the house next to mum and dad came up for sale. Due to the nature of the purchase my dad handled the financial side of things. (i mention this for a reason)
Ok so in the last year he seems to have got worse. He starts sentences then cant remember what he was talking about. Although he never had many hobbies, always absorbed in work, he did grow tomatoes and do a bit of this and that at home. He doesn't do any of this now and sleeps an awful lot. His personality seems to have changed and before he could manage to juggle many things in his head at once now he seems to struggle with one thing. He is infinately worse when he is stressed out. He sends random letters to people that make no sense - the accountant gets these regularly! He chaired a meeting the other week and people phoned me after to say he wasn't making any sense. Most people who know him have expressed concerns regarding his mental health. Its rather like someone has messed up his mental filing system and when you talk to him you can see in his face he is searching his brain for what he wants to say and yet can't find it.
I managed to get to see his GP and explained my concerns. He said next time he went in he would do a cognitive test. This happened some 5 weeks ago and he scored 29 out of 30 - and the doctor said he was fine nothing to worry about. So as a family we felt downhearted as we know something is wrong yet to get him to the doctors again would be difficult. In the meantime he received a letter from the bank - nothing serious but quite longwinded with lots of figures in it. He became very stressed and couldn't handle it. He came to see me that evening and said he needed me to remortgage my house so he could raise some cash to repair a roof at the business. I said that he had sorted out the house purchase and deeds etc and so, although i didn't mind raising the cash against my house i felt there were other ways to do it. He had absolutely no recollection of buying my house and all the financial work he had done at the time.
A couple of days later he came to see me again in a terrible mood. He said he wanted all my money from the business partnership - a considerable amount which is all tied into property - the next morning as the business was going to go bust. I said i didnt know what he was talking about and lets go and talk to mum next door. He said he knew what i was trying to do to him and didnt want me to talk about it in front of her. I managed to get him home and explained to mum what he had said. She said lets sit and talk quietly to which he replied i was stealing from him and thats where i got my money from. He then said i should give him all the money from my till everyday and then he collapsed to the floor. Like a fuse had blown. I called an ambulance. His heart rate and breathing were normal but he was out for about 10 minutes. He went to hospital and they gave him a quick once over and sent him home.
As we knew we had to get him to seek further treatment my sister wrote to the GP and said he had given him the all clear when clearly everything wasnt ok. Fortunately the letter worked and he went back to the GP yesterday morning. He did the cognitive test (5 weeks after the first) and this time he scored 13. Straight to hospital where they have performed numbers of tests including a brain scan. He is still in tonight. As far as i can gather there is nothing untoward with the brain scan but we have yet to see a consultant.
So these are my questions:
1.Could he have dementia/alzeimers and nothing show up on the brain scan?
2.What will they do next - if there is nothing on the scan will they do some other test
3 any advice!!
4 i do not think he has set up a power of eterny (spelt right?) and if not does anyone have any advice regards the business side of it
Thanks for reading
A couple of years ago the house next to mum and dad came up for sale. Due to the nature of the purchase my dad handled the financial side of things. (i mention this for a reason)
Ok so in the last year he seems to have got worse. He starts sentences then cant remember what he was talking about. Although he never had many hobbies, always absorbed in work, he did grow tomatoes and do a bit of this and that at home. He doesn't do any of this now and sleeps an awful lot. His personality seems to have changed and before he could manage to juggle many things in his head at once now he seems to struggle with one thing. He is infinately worse when he is stressed out. He sends random letters to people that make no sense - the accountant gets these regularly! He chaired a meeting the other week and people phoned me after to say he wasn't making any sense. Most people who know him have expressed concerns regarding his mental health. Its rather like someone has messed up his mental filing system and when you talk to him you can see in his face he is searching his brain for what he wants to say and yet can't find it.
I managed to get to see his GP and explained my concerns. He said next time he went in he would do a cognitive test. This happened some 5 weeks ago and he scored 29 out of 30 - and the doctor said he was fine nothing to worry about. So as a family we felt downhearted as we know something is wrong yet to get him to the doctors again would be difficult. In the meantime he received a letter from the bank - nothing serious but quite longwinded with lots of figures in it. He became very stressed and couldn't handle it. He came to see me that evening and said he needed me to remortgage my house so he could raise some cash to repair a roof at the business. I said that he had sorted out the house purchase and deeds etc and so, although i didn't mind raising the cash against my house i felt there were other ways to do it. He had absolutely no recollection of buying my house and all the financial work he had done at the time.
A couple of days later he came to see me again in a terrible mood. He said he wanted all my money from the business partnership - a considerable amount which is all tied into property - the next morning as the business was going to go bust. I said i didnt know what he was talking about and lets go and talk to mum next door. He said he knew what i was trying to do to him and didnt want me to talk about it in front of her. I managed to get him home and explained to mum what he had said. She said lets sit and talk quietly to which he replied i was stealing from him and thats where i got my money from. He then said i should give him all the money from my till everyday and then he collapsed to the floor. Like a fuse had blown. I called an ambulance. His heart rate and breathing were normal but he was out for about 10 minutes. He went to hospital and they gave him a quick once over and sent him home.
As we knew we had to get him to seek further treatment my sister wrote to the GP and said he had given him the all clear when clearly everything wasnt ok. Fortunately the letter worked and he went back to the GP yesterday morning. He did the cognitive test (5 weeks after the first) and this time he scored 13. Straight to hospital where they have performed numbers of tests including a brain scan. He is still in tonight. As far as i can gather there is nothing untoward with the brain scan but we have yet to see a consultant.
So these are my questions:
1.Could he have dementia/alzeimers and nothing show up on the brain scan?
2.What will they do next - if there is nothing on the scan will they do some other test
3 any advice!!
4 i do not think he has set up a power of eterny (spelt right?) and if not does anyone have any advice regards the business side of it
Thanks for reading