How do you distinguish between a plain incident of forgetfulness or early signs of dementia? Dad lost some important papers today, or at least he discovered that they were lost today. When I asked where he last saw the papers and if he brought them out of the house, he couldn’t remember. Now, there have been some incidents in the past where he would forget things — not remembering to close the tap, where he put his hearing aid, etc. But in general, his memory was still fine. Today’s incident struck me as odd, because he didn’t seem to have any recollection of what happened during the last week. Should I be worried?
You can keep an eye on your dad for other "odd" incidents. You can get him to a neurologist and have him tested for dementia.
Does your dad have absolutely no memory of anything during the last week? That would be cause for concern and perhaps warrant a trip to the ER.
But it's not up to you to determine between a "senior moment", a bout of forgetfulness based on lurking dementia, or something more acute and serious. That's what doctor's are for.
I don't know if it's selective memory or early onset dementia--I think it's that he simply doesn't care, and he knows I can find anything, so he has come to rely on me to be his "finder".
He has so much wrong with him--I don't WANT to know if he has dementia. I'm sure he will get worse and worse in the memory dept. It's a family curse.
I bet the little beasts are hiding in plain sight somewhere. I couldn't sympathise more deeply.
When do you yourself reckon they would have been last seen?
And thank God, we finally found the papers! Yey! :)