should i be worried?

betsie

Please insist your husband have a check at a memory clinic. My dad started like this and now has now memory at all (less than 1 minute) his doctor just said it was old age. If it is alzheimers he might benefit from medication which will stop it progressing so fast and keep him as the man you know for a few years longer.

The test is a series of questions, memory tests and drawings. From this they can tell if there is a problem. You then have blood tests (poor memory can be due to a vitamin B deficiency so get the doctor to do a blood test), brain scan and ECG (can be due to heart problem and poor blodflow to brain). My mum has just had this done as suddenly forgot who my dad was (har memory was fine otherwise). We are just waiting for the results.
Goodluck - the early it is sorted the better for you both.

krlyr

Dementia isn't the only cause for poor memory. I know that in the eldery, UTI/bladder infections can cause some strange behavioural symptoms, e.g. confusion, memory issues, etc. I don't know what age that these symptoms start becoming an issue, but just worth mentioning as it's not something you might automatically think of.
I've also seen several people on another forum I'm on mentioning how their Vitamin B deficiencies presented with memory problems as a symptom - most struggled to get a diagnostic but found their memory improved loads once they received B12 injections or started themselves on B12 supplements. Definately worth a doctors trip.

PasturesNew

The trouble tends to be that they can make perfect sense... to somebody that doesn't know them. My parent told our neighbour that she's been to look round her uncle's flats and he'd said she could go and live in one ..... if he did ever have any flats it'd have been in about 1960 and he's been dead (aged about 80-90) for the past 20 years.

McKneff

Please dont worry too much, even such a small thing like a urinary infection or dehydration can cause memory loss. Lots of other things too, stress at work, home etc.

lilac_lady

Themain thing is to pesuade you husband to go to his GP. If you feel that the GP brushes it off, ask for a memory clinic referral.

One of my friends was present at her husband's memory test. He'd been trying to hide the extent of his memory loss and had succeeded fairly well.

bluebird

Thank you so much to everyone for the imput,I am going to get an appointment with the GP for him and i shall insist on going with him.

Mojisola

bluebird wrote: »

Thank you so much to everyone for the imput,I am going to get an appointment with the GP for him and i shall insist on going with him.

As McKneff says, get the GP to eliminate the other stuff first. It would be awful to get into the dementia stuff and then find out it was all down to something simple.

This is an example of the MMSE that our Memory Clinic uses - https://www.dundee.ac.uk/medther/Stroke/Scales/mmsei.htm

koalamummy

Until relatively recently I was always one of those people blessed with a fabulous memory which helped me coast through education with minimal effort. However over the last few months I had noticed that I was becoming more and more forgetful and confused to the point where at times it seemed quite dangerous. I began to worry terribly about what was causing it as at the age of 35 I could not even contemplate the reality of forgetting major milestones in my childrens development. I began to panic about the possibility of pre senile dementia. However in actual fact I was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia and hypothyroidism. It is early days yet and I am still having a few issues but at least I know that these conditions are both easily treated and I will be back to normal sooner rather than later. Please don't assume the worst as very often it is simply not the case.

gibson123

don't panic, when I started forgetting things and being wooly headed, I was diagnosed as having an under-active thyroid. I suggested that my brother in-law who is the same age as you OH might also have the condition because he was also forgetful and yes he also has an under-active thyroid. Is he also getting tired easily, losing his appetite, getting swollen feet or hands, putting on weight, even just one of these can also be a sign.

patchwork_cat

My advice would be not to worry unduly as it could be a myriad of things, not least stress. I would however go and see the Dr.

For people to immediately jump to Alzheimer's reminds me why you do not ask for medical advice on an open forum. It could be lots of things plenty easily sorted.

My mum when stressed would leave things all over,reading glasses in the fridge etc. She never got Alzheimer's. I am forever forgetting words and it did worry me, but I have been like this for well over 10 years, so it is just one of those things!