Dementia self referal

Just be aware pompa if you are diagnosed with dementia it can affect your car insurance etc..

Pompa I can understand where you're coming from. My maternal gran had dementia. My mum had early onset Alzheimers. She died 2yrs. ago. I did the youguv online test for Alzheimers and afterward was informed by emal to see my GP asap. It freaked me out. I am constantly reviewing my surroundings, appearance, speech, behaviour and cognitive awareness. I even have to hold both hands up to determine right and left. So I know how you feel

Get an early diagnosis and then medication has a better chance of prolonging a good level of mental ability. When you talk to your GP don't assume or fear you have dementia or other memory problem until any lowness in mood is assessed. People with depression or SAD frequently have problems with memory.

Mind you we can all be very forgetful at times so don't write yourself off. Worrying about what you may or may not have is worse than knowing so see your GP.

You can only go to your Dr's pompa and tell him how you feel and he will do some simple tests and this could put your mind at rest or if he thinks you have a problem he will refer you and get you a diagnosis. My DH first went to our GP 4 years ago and was told he just had a bad memory.I should not have taken this but DH was happy, however last year he was diagnosed with dementia and is on medication.

If he had been given a proper diagnosis and treatment then, it may have delayed the progress of his illness.

Sorry if this sounds bleak, I just feel the sooner the better and of course your worries may be allayed.

Hopefully you will have nothing to worry about pompa, but certainly a trip to your GP would be a good idea.
I have to think twice sometimes about left and right !

I always have to think about which is left or right, but then I always have done. I put it down to being ambidextrous to some extent. My Dad has dementia. The first time we noticed was after his prostate op. About five years ago. He couldn't remember the name of the pudding he had and saw strange things at night! He began losing words quite quickly after that but a diagnosis, and the proper drugs gave him an extra two years of good quality life. He's nearly 92 now.

I've had the driving thing you mention once or twice and it is disconcerting.
Suddenly a road i have driven along many times stops being familiar and I have to drive on for a few minutes before it becomes recognizable again.

I forget names all the time. Last year I went to John Lewis to buy a face cream I have been using regularly for at least twenty years and found I could not recall it's name. In the end I went home without buying it and it was several hours before I suddenly remembered it was Lancome.

I worry sometimes. If you are really concerned pompa no harm in going along to your GP and explaining the situation.

I think a visit to the GP would be a good option, because, as others have said, an early diagnosis is very beneficial when it comes to treatment. But, as you know that depression is a problem for you, this can mimic dementia, and anti-depressants can slow you down.

A proper diagnosis is needed and if there is a problem you will be offered further assessment and treatment with drugs or strategies to help you cope. A diagnosis of dementia is not the disaster it once was - Terry Pratchett, Michael Gambon and other celebrities have this problem and continue working. Judy Dench (it took me a long while to dredge her name up from my brain!!) sometimes uses an earpiece so she can be prompted as she finds it hard to remember her lines.

I know that you will worry about this if you do not seek help. It may be that GP will be able to reassure you. It is difficult as we are all probably experiencing lapses of memory at our age and it is hard to know what is or isn't within the bounds of normal aging - we have not done this before!

Definitely depression can do it, at my worst even driving a mile to my surgery was a struggle with concentrating......

I suspect depression has a lot to do with it, I am rather low atm (we have some extended family problems). I am concerned that being tested would compromise my driving.
I have just completed a self test (SAGE), the result was perfect, in fact apart from trying hard to remember the instruction that I had to complete at the end, and knowing the date (had it not been Friday 13th, I'm sure I would have been guessing), I found it very simple.

I often fail to know the current date, it's not the sort of thing I bother to think about, I would check my phone if I needed it.

Can't see that your driving would be compromised by being tested, unless there is actually a problem.
If there is a problem that could lead to a lapse in driving skills, would you want to risk it?

I'd think your GP would want to check out everything possible first and not rush into a diagnosis of dementia.

(A previous poster on another thread - can't remember what - said that her DH was on the point of being diagnosed as having dementia when it was found out he was short of folic acid, and a course of that restored him to health & wellness. Something to think about.)

I sometimes am unaware of the date, I also wake up and ask myself 'what day is it' When your retired these things don't need to be at the forefront of your mind.

May I just say that it depends on the type of dementia someone is diagnosed with as to whether or not any drugs can be prescribed in an effort to slow the patients decline.

You are right nina My DH has Alzheimer's and had the brain scan showed vascular dementia he would not have prescribed medication.pompa the GP will put a raft of tests in place before referring you. My H had blood tests, an ECG and blood pressure tests to eliminate any possibilities before he was referred to the Memory clinic. And there is not an automatic driving ban although you do have to notify DVLA and your insurance providers. Good luck and go and reassure yourself.

That's my point Ann60 so thanks for confirming my post, you do have to notify DVLA and your insurance provider if it's confirmed.

I was told that dementia was not forgetting your PIN number but forgetting what a cash machine is for. I would strongly suggest you see a GP. We have had experience of dementia in the family recently and if medication would help, the sooner you get it the better and if there is nothing wrong you can stop worrying.

My husband was also told something similar crafting, not putting the wrong thing in the fridge, but not knowing what the fridge is for!

Maybe I'm worrying unduly, I can always find the fridge. I can also remember my pin codes (more than one) and my many passwords, I also have to remember my DW's passwords.

An example of what concerns me is :-
DW was talking about a house in xxxx road, no way could I think where xxxx road was (we live in a village, so not too many roads). It turned out that xxxx road was only a few hundred yards from our lane and one that I often drive along and have know the name of for years.

Can you remember where you went on holiday last year and the year before? In a strange house or hotel do you know where the bathroom is in the middle of the night? These were two things first alerting me to my DH's problem.Also forgetting he had new clothes in the wardrobe and wanting to wear old familiars until they are wearing out. So many more and so many seem minor until living with it for 18 hours a day. An aquaintance took a lawn mower for repair and hasn't a clue where he took it.This is several months ago and his wife has visited or rung all likely locations with no joy.

I see your concern pompa - I have had very similar things happen to me....someone says that so-and-so lives in a particular village and I have to wrack my brains to think where it is, even though I have lived here 40 odd years!

I thinbk that a visit to the GP might provide you with reassurance that your problems are par for the course for someone in their late middle age. And do not go mugging up on the number of children the queen has or who the prime minister is before you go!!

I think we all have memory lapses to varying degrees and things that you do regularly sometime leave you scratching your head and trying to remember. Burglar alarm code, PIN number, passwords, DS's alarm code so I can get into their house with the GC. I think that our brains get like the computer hard drive and are full of temporary files that need removing so that we can recall the important stuff.

You sound fine to me, pompa. I never know what date it is without checking the calendar, I often 'come to' when driving and haven't a clue where I am, usually because I was thinking about something else entirely. I have been forgetting words for things for years and years, in my case it's hormonal. You may well have a deficiency or it's down to medication.

Don't worry about the driving part, people with dementia are still allowed to drive. The ability to drive doesn't get forgotten, just where you are driving to. When I was going through a divorce I found myself driving back to old houses, old schools, all sorts of weird places when I should have been driving to work! Stress makes your brain do odd things.

But maybe you should get yourself checked out just to put your mind at rest, and maybe change your medication.

Am I the only one who's getting a bit worried by this thread? I didn't know people with dementia are still allowed to drive.

I hope you are fine, pompa but didn't we just have a thread about people thinking about whether or not they should be giving up their licenses?

I don't mean to sound uncaring.

pompa, please don't worry but let us know what you decide to do and the outcome if you go to the GP.

My DH voluntarily gave up driving at my insistence Merlot. I felt like you but the Psychiatrist we saw said he could drive so long as I was happy.Well I wasn't so I made the decision. He wasn't happy but has accepted it now.