Dad slurring his words :(

[jumpjockey]

Dad just phoned to arrange a time to pop up and visit, was almost slurring his words and speaking very 'carefully' if you know what I mean. Eventually he said hang on, I don't have my diary here (but he'd called to arrange a visit?) He does this quite often and I wonder if he's drunk in the middle of the day, sometimes if I say Is everything ok he goes back to his normal way of speaking, today he said he's 'a bit icky' but said he'd not been drinking.

The worrying part is that his mum had Alzheimers amd I really worry that he might be starting to go that way. He'll phone for a chat then forget he did it, or have conversations that go round and round in circles for ages saying the same thing or asking the same questions over and over.

he does a lot of things to keep his brain active - goes out flying a plane for goodnes' sake - but why then this weird behaviour? I could understand if I'd called him and surprised him but if he planned a conversation then why not have his diary there?

I don't know if there's a problem but it makes me sad to hear him talking like that.

[flibertygibet]

Has drink been a problem with him before? Is he depressed? Can you 'drop in' on him to see how he's doing?

My mum has dementia and while she doesn't slur her words or anything, her short term memory was the first to go. (She is in the later stages now). If it is Alzheimers/dementia, there are a lot of very good medications that he could start taking. Is there any way you can get him to see the doc? He might be very scared if his mum had Alz. and what I didn't realise until my mum went through it is that geriatric depression is very very common.

[deste]

Slurring can be a sign of a stroke.

[Donk]

Slurring can also be a sign of other worrying things - maybe best to get him checked out by Dr.

[jumpjockey]

Thanks for your replies, wasn't sure where the best place was to put this thread. fliberty what is geriatric depression specifically? Sorry to hear about your mum. If anything he's actually generally a lot happier now that he's retired than when he was working, really disliked some of the things his employers did and now he's got a good network of local friends that he didn't have before.

The oddest thing is that most of the time he's absolutely fine which makes it all the stranger when he does one of these random phone calls. deste, I don't think it's a stroke as it's happened before but will certainly be on the lookout in case it gets suddently worse.

[MyNameIsInigoMontoya]

I don't want to make you more worried but have heard that people with early stages of alzheimers/dementia can be very good at "covering up" the early symptoms. If only to rule things out it would definitely be worth him getting checked out; and might also be a good idea to start noting down any particular odd incidents so you have a record to refer back to and some examples to give to the doctor if necessary.

Hope it turns out to be nothing though.

[meakin]

I thought stroke too, my FIL has had two and when he is tired it can be hard to make him out clearly. Hope you find out.