Either my friend tunes me out when I answer his q.s or he has alzheimer's

[depechemodefan]

Only reason I say he has alzheimer's is his mom and her siblings have alzheimer's.

Anyway, happens a lot I answer a question my friend asks and then an hour latter or the next day he asks the same question. He didn't have this problem years ago.

So right now I live in Houston, which is flooding, and I'm staying at my friends house with his brother. This morning my friend wanted me to drive around and find fast food. Yesterday his area was flooded, esp. the street in front of the house. There was no water in front of the house today. So I get in my truck, and drive around the Meyerland area, and nothing is open. I thought the Krogers (grocery store) was opne becuase I see a lot of cars in front, but I'm in my pajamas. My streetclothes were all wet from walking in the water yesterday to the corner store for soda.

So drivng around here, nothing open. I drive 2 miles away (on the freeway) to an area with a lot of stores/fast food places. Nothing open. So I call my friend, tell him only Krogers is open, besides two convenient stores by his house. He said go to Krogers to get tortillas and soda. I decide to go to the convenient stores since it's more informal, but when I got to the conveneint store, no tortillas or bread (we had eggs and sausage) so I call him and said I will go to Krogers and buy tortillas and sodas.

I go to Krogers but it's closed. I thought it was open because there were a lot of cars up front. I didn't think about going back to the convenient stores to get sodas because I'm pissed about Krogers being closed. Granted, I hate that I wasn't prepared enough to not have to go to store.

So I go to his house and tell him what happened, and that when I saw Krogers was closed I just went back and didn't think about going to the convenient store again for sodas. Then I have to tell him the story again latter on because he wants to know why I din't go for soda. And he asks two more times and I blow up on him because I had to repeat myself. He wasn't asking "why didn't you stop at the convenient store to get sodas when Krogers was closed" he was asking "why didn't you buy sodas at Krogers".

I hope he isn't getting alzheimer's, but it feels like he asks a question then tunes me out right away.

[Lurking Sockpuppet]

As a caretaker for someone with alheimers. It's very possible.

[Pixelated]

How old is your friend? Not that a young person can't develop dementia of some form or another ... I just think it's not so common.

I tend to repeat myself -- sometimes forgetting what I've told and to whom -- but I don't think I'm quite as "off" as that. Take a note of other things he might "forget" ... like turning the stove off. If he seems to be forgetting stuff that is important or outright dangerous, he might indeed be developing some form of memory impairment.

[Aria]

Is he taking sleeping pills or any other medications that could affect his short term memory?

Edited to add: Statins too. My dad had some weird memory problems when he was on statins.

[greek_jester]

Statins too. My dad had some weird memory problems when he was on statins.

This. My mum had to have her statins changed as the ones she was on left her with virtually no ability to recall short-term memories. Given that Alzheimer's runs in the family it gave us some bad moments.

[protege]

I tend to repeat myself -- sometimes forgetting what I've told and to whom -- but I don't think I'm quite as "off" as that. Take a note of other things he might "forget" ... like turning the stove off. If he seems to be forgetting stuff that is important or outright dangerous, he might indeed be developing some form of memory impairment.

Keep in mind too, that stress can cause some strange memory issues. Lately, my mom has been forgetting what she's told me, even though it was only 15 minutes ago. Of course, she's had a rough couple of years. The stress from my dad leaving her, and ultimately trying to ruin her financially--has done a number on her mind. While my brothers and I are concerned about her, so far, the only thing important she's forgotten...is to leave the keys in the car. Not so bad by itself, but we'd jumped onto the T (Pittsburgh's subway system), and had parked the car. When we took the return trip, and were walking back to the car, she couldn't find her keys. Turns out she'd not only left them in the car...but the engine was running

At that point, she realized that the stress was getting to her, and is now very careful about remembering her keys and other items.