Hi all,

I have some questions regarding dementia and this has to do with my dad. He's 72 going on 73 and has been acting weird lately. These symptoms come and go and over time they have gotten worse. My mom is at wits' end because she gets the brunt of the results.

---- He forgets names, dates, and places often.

---- Forgets where he places things.
We've ended up purchasing more than two of many things because he miss-placed them. We never let him put things away anymore if we can help it.

---- He makes up stories and greatly exaggerates the truth of old incidents

---- Gets past incidents mixed up to a point where they're totally misconstrued. See above

---- Gets very beligerent and really argumentative
Looks for things to argue over or fight about. They're stupid things like changing channels on the TV.

---- Sleeps a lot.
Gets up feeds the cats, complains about all the hard work he has to do and takes a nap.


---- Constant eating.
He eats more in one day than I consume in a week.
It's mostly carbs and other sweets, which kind of scares me. Diabetes?

---- Talks to himself constantly.
Not like the occasional "You idiot, remember the car keys", or "Oh yeah, you need to water the plants, etc." This is full conversations with the man in the mirror or while feeding the cats.

---- Eating out of children's plates. The kind with the divisors that we bought for me neice and nephews.
Why?

---- Very obsessive compulsive over certain routines.
If someone gets in the bathroom before he cleans the catbox, he goes ballistic. If the pets or wildlife need food and there isn't any in the closet, he goes bonkers until we bring him out to buy some. (It's not like the cats need to eat; they're well fed and content, and the deer and turkeys can wait a day or two).

---- Always off in his own world.
He acts like he's off on his own planet all the time.

From a side point, he does have some mild hypertension and is taking medication for that. He also complains all the time about aches and pains, but because he complains so much, we don't know if this is real.

I keep thinking about his carbs and sugar intake. Could this be diabetes, or some other sugar-related imbalance?

So anyway, we're going crazy. My mom is ready to walk away from 49 years of marriage. She's been on the receiving end of this for quite a long time. We don't know what's wrong, or how to handle this. How would I go about getting him to a doctor, etc? I'm overwhelmed with this as well and don't need the extra stress.

Thanks in advance as always,

John