Suspected dementia and blood tests - my dad

[Glorianaz]

Hello all

Just after some advice really as I'm going out of my mind with worry. My dads memory has been bad for quite a while but the last few months my brother and I have noticed its getting much worse. Dementia, particularly alzheimers has been quite prevalent in that side of our family
It took us an age to convince him to go to the doctors but he finally has and had a blood test, now the doctors have asked that he goes back for further blood tests. Hes told us the nurse did explain why but he didnt quite understand and he is under the impression that is routine and nothing to worry about. Can anybody give any insight as to why this might be and if this is a routine procedure to detect dementia?
We are worried they will come back with nothing when there is very clearly a big problem and then it will be even harder to get him back to the doctors.
I'd really appreciate any advice or insight

Thanks

My dad's diagnosis involved blood tests, scans, and memory tests (getting him to draw a clock face, remember addresses they'd told him five minutes previously etc).
For us it wasn't a shock when his dementia was confirmed.

There are blood issues that are more common in elderly people, they sound scary but often just involve routine visits to the haematology clinic so it could be something like that?

Have you got LPOA set up? You could always contact your dad's GP yourselves and express your concerns. Good luck.

I work in dementia care and a CT scan will confirm dementia..There are lots of new drugs available now to help people living with dementia. Once your dad has his diagnosis, he may be assessed at a memory clinic, and he'll meet dementia specialists eho can explain everything.

I would imagine blood tests are to rule out everything else. Lots of physical illnesses can mimic dementia in the elderly.

Best wishes to you and your dad.

Blood tests is a usual first step to rule out other conditions and deficiencies that can cause dementia-like symptoms. It's also quite frequent for a blood sample not to work for some reason and need to be re-taken.

Try to persuade him to take someone else to his appointments, to act as a note-taker.