Woried about my father

[andrewhead]

My father aged 70 is having trouble with his memory, in particular he is struggling to remember the date and time. My parents have just returned from a weekend away and he was worried from 1.00pm that they would miss the coach at 5.00pm. He is never able to give the correct date, and has on occasions lost his chain of conversation during a converstion. He recently had surgery on a knee which made him have very strange behaviour which the doctors put down to the operation and rekated drugs. He also suffered a heart attack about three yeras ago which appears to have made the situation worse. His stubborn nature and general short temper would make it difficult to get him to the doctor. Since retiring he has become somewhat of a stay at home man and his sleeping patterns have chenged significantly. Can anyone help, should we be concerned?
Thank you for any advice.

 

[Vonny]

Hi Andrew and welcome to Talking Point.

I think a GP would probably find it difficult to say if your father's memory problems are caused by dementia or general old age. We do become more forgetful the older we get, and stress, depression and ailments can all have a bearing on memory and changing sleep patterns.

If you are concerned, my suggestion would be to contact your father's GP in confidence and ask that he either visits your father or calls him into the surgery under the pretext of a general check up for the over 70s for example. Some doctors will see a relative by appointment, others will talk over the phone but if your father's GP won't do that he will accept a letter.

Once the GP has seen your father he can refer him onto a memory consultant who can perform some tests of your father's memory. Sometimes it's possible to diagnose dementia from these but often a cat scan is also required.

It would be useful if you could keep a record of any odd behaviours and memory lapses to show to the GP.

Vonny xx