OT: Dementia

Chris · 2018-12-27T13:36:49+00:00

Hi,My siblings and I have been taking it in turns to look after our mum after she had a nasty fall recently. We're not expecting her to be up and about for another 12 weeks. Anyway, we siblings share our duties with our dad on a roughly equal basis. But something's definitely not right with the situation. We haven't noticed anything wrong mentally with mum and she's pretty easy to look after and keep an eye on. However, dad swears blind that she's got dementia and half the time doesn't know which day of the week it is and even who *he* is much of the time. But as I say, these disturbing reports only come from him; the rest of the family have not noticed anything amiss. We're wondering whether it could be *him* who has in fact got dementia, not her. He certainly has a terrible memory lately and hasn't been entirely well mentally for the last 2 years what with memory problems and depression associated with having to look after her whereas formerly they'd both been very active people (they're both 76).Can anyone confirm our suspicions from own personal experience of similar circumstances? Is it feasible he could be unjustly blaming her for his own severe memory shortcomings?THanks.

OT: Dementia

Dec 27, 2018 Last reply: 7 years ago 69 Replies

Rate this thread:

harry 7 years ago

It's possible to xray the head & detect Alzheimer's. Voids appear in the brain.

Vote

Cursitor Doom 7 years ago

Well, if they put milk in it then they must be at least partly civilised.

Vote

Cursitor Doom 7 years ago

Not with x-rays it isn't.

Vote

F 7 years ago

A CT scan confirmed my father's developing vascular dementia.

Vote

Cursitor Doom 7 years ago

Sorry to hear that, but you can take heart from the fact that some of the brightest and sharpest octogenarians were only discovered as having significant brain atrophy post mortem. They displayed no symptoms in life. This proves that there is *not necessary* a correlation between physical atrophy of the brain and dementia. The brain is "rewirable" as it were.

formatting link

Vote

Bill Wright 7 years ago

I've posted four times in this thread not including this.

Bill

Vote

Bill Wright 7 years ago

Yes.

Bill

Vote

Chris 7 years ago

As I have since found out. In what must surely be a world first for Usenet, I humbly *apologise* for f****ng up!

Vote

Bill Wright 7 years ago

The odd thing is I can only find two of them.

Bill

Vote

Steve Walker 7 years ago

While dementia is a real possibility, there are a couple of other possibilities (gleaned from conversations with my wife, as a Community Psychiatric Nurse):

1) confusion and memory problems can be caused by infections (even urinary tract infections). 2) memory problems can be caused by depression.

In either case, treating the underlying problem brings an end to the memory problems.

I hope that your dad turns out to be okay.

SteveW

Vote