What to do if you're concerned about someone's memory.

For those that have joined us since January this year my beloved Daddykins was a HUGE part of Rants and Big Pants as I shared his final 2 years on here whilst he was living with alzheimers. If you head to our story highlights you can learn from our journey and love my Dad almost as much as me… he’s a real charachter. Please let people know who are just starting this journey that our story is there as it gives a really good insight in to handling alzheimers and dementia from a relative who’s caring point of view.

My beloved Daddykins (Roger) passed away on 28th January this year… 2021. We were always close and like two peas in a pod. In November 2009 I noticed more than ever on my wedding day how bad Dad’s memory had become after he’d had a few beers. Later that month and after lots of persuasion to see a doctor he was diagnosed with memory impairment. We eventually got a diagnosis of azheimers around 2014.

People often say to me “My mum/dad/gran/grandpa are very forgetful I”m sure she’s got the start of alzheimers or dementia. What do I do?”

In the first instance… Book an appointment with your Doctor. If there is cause for concern they will then refer you to a Memory Specialist, who will continue to assess your love one until eventually they’re passed over to a hospital dementia specialist. There they will have brain scans and regular yearly assessments to keep an eye on how the disease is progressing. This is what Dad had, it may have changed since.

Please don’t think that once you get an alzheimers or dementia diagnosis it’s all doom and gloom… it isn’t. However, how you personally handle it does play a massive part in this journey. I always said and will continue to give this piece of advice to people… ‘LOVE and LAUGHTER’ always have this at the forefront of your mind when you’re with the alzheimers sufferer. BUT most of all, leave them with either love or laughter as they may not remember you being there BUT they know how you make them feel and being in touch with their emotions and retaining the feelings is a big part of all of this. So tell them that one joke that makes them laugh again and again…they don’t remember when they last heard it (watch the video below) play them their favourite song, give them a hug, just enable the love or laughter vibes.

I hope this helps.

Big hugs,

💜

Neens