Hi all, I'm a newbie.
My dad is a very active, independent 82. He's always had a rubbish memory but recently this has been combined with belligerence, petulance, stubbornness and plain old stupidity. He does stuff like put buns in the microwave "to warm them" and then leaves them in there for 20 minutes (he almost burnt the house down last time), or wears two watches ("one of them is wrong but I can't remember which") or two pairs of glasses one on top of the other (he has dry macular degeneration and tunnel vision so his sight isn't great anyway, and he is partly deaf).
I think it may well be the onset of some type of dementia. Dad is fit for his age, and he teaches fencing (runs a club on saturdays and takes private lessons at home). If he had to give this up he would be very depressed - when he's not fencing he is bored witless and I can't help but feel this would make things worse.
Thing is, I am not sure how I can get him to acknowledge he has a problem. I can't very well say "Dad, you're demented, go and see the GP". Can I speak to the GP confidentially and tell them what I think? And then them offer to run some tests next time he has an appointment?
I don't drive, and I work full-time so getting him there is problematic - he is happy to take himself off wherever with his bus pass, he's not that far gone that this is dangerous.
I don't earn enough for a place of my own, so I live at home with dad where I grew up. My younger brother (28) recently went away for a year travelling, and he doesn't know how I feel about dad being ill - I didn't want to ruin his trip. I do have my boyfriend staying here with me, and he is unemployed atm so spends more time with dad than I do. Dad's behaviour can be so frustratingly child-like that it's put a lot of strain on us and I worry about that too. We both look after dad but it can be fairly thankless when you've just hoovered the house and he wanders around eating a bun with no plate, bun hanging at his side, crumbs everywhere, just wandering around picking things up and putting them down elsewhere, or sitting there clicking his feet together.. aaargh!
Rant over. Any advice anyone?
My dad is a very active, independent 82. He's always had a rubbish memory but recently this has been combined with belligerence, petulance, stubbornness and plain old stupidity. He does stuff like put buns in the microwave "to warm them" and then leaves them in there for 20 minutes (he almost burnt the house down last time), or wears two watches ("one of them is wrong but I can't remember which") or two pairs of glasses one on top of the other (he has dry macular degeneration and tunnel vision so his sight isn't great anyway, and he is partly deaf).
I think it may well be the onset of some type of dementia. Dad is fit for his age, and he teaches fencing (runs a club on saturdays and takes private lessons at home). If he had to give this up he would be very depressed - when he's not fencing he is bored witless and I can't help but feel this would make things worse.
Thing is, I am not sure how I can get him to acknowledge he has a problem. I can't very well say "Dad, you're demented, go and see the GP". Can I speak to the GP confidentially and tell them what I think? And then them offer to run some tests next time he has an appointment?
I don't drive, and I work full-time so getting him there is problematic - he is happy to take himself off wherever with his bus pass, he's not that far gone that this is dangerous.
I don't earn enough for a place of my own, so I live at home with dad where I grew up. My younger brother (28) recently went away for a year travelling, and he doesn't know how I feel about dad being ill - I didn't want to ruin his trip. I do have my boyfriend staying here with me, and he is unemployed atm so spends more time with dad than I do. Dad's behaviour can be so frustratingly child-like that it's put a lot of strain on us and I worry about that too. We both look after dad but it can be fairly thankless when you've just hoovered the house and he wanders around eating a bun with no plate, bun hanging at his side, crumbs everywhere, just wandering around picking things up and putting them down elsewhere, or sitting there clicking his feet together.. aaargh!
Rant over. Any advice anyone?