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Kerry,

My experience is similar to what happens to your Dad.

You wrote :

What I am concerned about, is that lately, he has been telling me that he
thinks
he is losing his memory. He says that he cannot remember things that happened
yesterday, he has an impossible time concentrating and figuring out the
simplest of tasks ...

I am 64/8, and my memory has slowly decreased over many years. More recently,
I gradually found it more and more difficult to concentrate. This means : I
often find myself telling the same story again, and I cannot read a book any
more.

As far as I can analyse this frustrating status (I am not a doctor), I would
blame the side-effects of anti-depressant or sleeping pills I have taken for
several decades. When I was still professionnally active (very active), I
could cope through tight organization, taking and saving notes, inventing many
little tips, like putting my handkerchief in the wrong pocket AND having a
note about what I was supposed to remember in the right pocket.

I also understand one has to practise his/her memory as much as possible. I do
practise, but I cannot say where I would be without doing that.

I have been retired for 4 years, and I am 100% busy running Parkliste (the
French-speaking list). This type of activity fits quite well with my memory
and concentration problems, because most of it is off-line, and you deal with
one message at a time.

Does anyone know what PD does, if anything, to the memory of a
person? To their mind? Is there anything I can tell my father to ease his
worry?

Again, my understanding is there is not any harm on patient's mind (at least
in the early stages), and your Dad's symptoms probably are side-effects of
drugs. He can fight back with tips and memory practise. Now, what can you tell
him ? I don't know : if you already have a communication channel with him,
along which you can handle touchy matters, I think you should be candid and
tell what you feel. If not so, you certainly need to build one, and then why
not take this problem as a starting point ?

Take care

Bernard JOLY
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