Experience of early onset dementia??

[Panda378y]

my dad is late 60s and my sis and I have been noticing a few memory problems recently. For example, sis was clearing out her old photos and found a pic of our house around 2000-2003. We were only there a few years but it was quite distinctive and my dad said ‘so where’s that then?’

tonight I spoke to my parents about getting another cat and he was very against it. We started chatting through the various pets we’ve had from childhood til now (we are all in our 30s) and dad had forgot about the cat that got lost when we were kids… I was only a toddler when it went but that story has been told and told again… they moved house, it escaped and dad spent weeks calling its name trying to find it. The fact that he didn’t r remember that is really concerning me?

sis is a nurse and has said the same (not about tonight but other things she’s noticed).

has anyone experienced similar? Is it just he’s retired so he forgets things or is this something more sinister? His dad died of Alzheimer’s so it does run in the family.

It sounds like normal ageing brain to me. I don’t think you can diagnose it in what you have said here.

My mum started to deteriorate at the same age. It started with very small things, and a lot of the time she could mask it.
It really struck me when she came to visit and she (a very accomplished mathematician) couldn't play rummikub with the kids (a long time family favourite) because she couldn't understand or see the patterns. It took a lot to convince her and my siblings that anything was wrong and we only managed to get her to check it out when my dr DH suggested that it could be a number of things that were affecting her memory (urine infections are a common slight confusion issue, her thyroid medication needing adjusting and other common conditions) and that it would be best to get checked out.
Turns out she was getting her meds wrong which was making her worse but she also had the start of Alzheimer's.
Her progress with the disease has been fairly rapid but steady and she's in a lovely care home now. She has had a personality change from a feisty / argumentative soul to a generally gentle lady and has aged considerably over the past few years.
It can be very difficult however even up to just before she went into the home could mask it in conversation and lots of friends and neighbours were surprised when we told them.

You don’t mean early onset dementia, do you? That’s a form of dementia which affects people before the age of 65. You’re asking about the early symptoms of “normal” dementia.

This gives the differences between normal ageing and dementia

You need to ask GP and an appt for the memory clinic. They'll do an assessment, first one as baseline will be helpful to assess any further decline.