Hi, I am new here and hope to get some advice from people that have been through what I am going through now so as I can help my father get the treatment, if there is any, that he needs. The story so far is this....
...My father is 78 and for two years previously he had been having memory loss..he visited his Doctor with my mum three times before he took it seriously and sent a specialist round to the house with a CPN, to assess my father. He did various tests and confirmed that he had short term memory loss. He arranged for my dad to have a CT scan of his head and various blood tests. My father already suffers from high cholesterol, high blood presure and has type two diabetes which they treat with drugs. Firstly I have to say that my dad hasn't always been careful with his diabetes and thinks he can eat what he likes and get away with it...I don't think he thinks Diabetes is as serious as it is....anyway the CT scan showed that he'd had, what the Doctor describes as a "heart attack of the brain" where, he says, the blood vessels narrow and starve the brain of essential things thus leading to his memory loss...he says it could stay the same or get worse....we asked him to write down what my dad has and he put "Progressive Dementia"..he said it's a bit like Alzheimers. Now my dad is getting worse and has symptoms of Obsessive compulsive disorder showing up...he has started to count spoons and even knows when a cup is missing. The Doctor says that there is no cure and he cannot give him any tablets as it will do no good...he has basically sent him home to get on with it....there was talk of him going to a day centre to do puzzles etc but nothing has been said about this now and it's all gone quiet. He has had to stop driving and his independence is gone now so he is in the house with my mum all day unless they go for a walk which isn't often...his life is ruled by the clocks, as soon as it's 7.30pm he starts getting ready for bed even if he's not tired and he's up at 6 most mornings....everything has to be done in a set routine and he gets annoyed if my mum doesn't do as he does. Any advice would be great as I don't know what to do for the best. Thanks Milly
...My father is 78 and for two years previously he had been having memory loss..he visited his Doctor with my mum three times before he took it seriously and sent a specialist round to the house with a CPN, to assess my father. He did various tests and confirmed that he had short term memory loss. He arranged for my dad to have a CT scan of his head and various blood tests. My father already suffers from high cholesterol, high blood presure and has type two diabetes which they treat with drugs. Firstly I have to say that my dad hasn't always been careful with his diabetes and thinks he can eat what he likes and get away with it...I don't think he thinks Diabetes is as serious as it is....anyway the CT scan showed that he'd had, what the Doctor describes as a "heart attack of the brain" where, he says, the blood vessels narrow and starve the brain of essential things thus leading to his memory loss...he says it could stay the same or get worse....we asked him to write down what my dad has and he put "Progressive Dementia"..he said it's a bit like Alzheimers. Now my dad is getting worse and has symptoms of Obsessive compulsive disorder showing up...he has started to count spoons and even knows when a cup is missing. The Doctor says that there is no cure and he cannot give him any tablets as it will do no good...he has basically sent him home to get on with it....there was talk of him going to a day centre to do puzzles etc but nothing has been said about this now and it's all gone quiet. He has had to stop driving and his independence is gone now so he is in the house with my mum all day unless they go for a walk which isn't often...his life is ruled by the clocks, as soon as it's 7.30pm he starts getting ready for bed even if he's not tired and he's up at 6 most mornings....everything has to be done in a set routine and he gets annoyed if my mum doesn't do as he does. Any advice would be great as I don't know what to do for the best. Thanks Milly
Last edited: