Question about the aging.
 

There is a guy retiring this Friday. I’ve noticed he tells me the same stories over and over again. I can match him word by word in my head as he speaks. I’ve memorized them. I stay polite and just let him tell it like the first time.
Is this a sign of something sinister in his future? Alzheimer’s?

Yes, I think so. Early onset dementia.

How old are you and how old is he?

One positive thing about dementia is that suddenly there are no reruns on the TV. Chief Sandwicher and I have a running wager involving how far into a movie we will be before we realize we’ve already seen it.

Also, the same joke is funny no matter how many times we’ve heard it so there is that.

Not necessarily a sign of impending dementia. There are some people who just tell the same stories over and over again. That's their repetoire.

You get a good story, you tell it.

There is a guy retiring this Friday. I’ve noticed he tells me the same stories over and over again. I can match him word by word in my head as he speaks. I’ve memorized them. I stay polite and just let him tell it like the first time.
Is this a sign of something sinister in his future? Alzheimer’s?

Did I ever tell you about the time...?

Seriously, jus lost a buddy since childhood to dementia. During the early stages, he told me he could look at something, knew what it was, but he just couldn't say it.

That’s my dad exactly.
He’s been telling the story about the 55 Corvette and the pheasant since 1955. I bet the subject of Corvettes has never gone by without a retelling.

My answer is the same as the last time.:D

Hah! We see what you did there.

Dementia and Alzheimer's are not the same although 60 to 80% of those with dementia do have Alzheimer's. Dementia is a more normal progression of the ability to maintain the same brain function as you did when younger. It just goes with old age — some more than others.

I have a friend I meet for coffee now and then and I'm apt to hear the same story if our visits are more frequent. Less frequent and he's on to new territory. I'd say anywhere from a month or 2 and the repeated story is dropped. It could be triggered, though, at any time.

OTOH, my wife can order dinner and five minutes later ask me what she ordered. Or shopping at the grocery, I carry the list and put things in the cart and mention it. 2 aisles later she asks me if we got the item.

At this point the blank seems to be from 5 minutes to 24 hours and then the memory may very well kick back in. She is OK with most routines. The early signs were likely there well over 5 years ago. Treatment began a year ago, but there is no real cure.

So what does treatment mean? I couldn't tell you other than some of this medicine is a bad as any cancer meds you have ever heard of.

For dementia diet, blood pressure, any heart issues and overall health are the key. The brain needs a lot of oxygen and if there is anything impairing that then brain is not being cared for.

One thing older folks can do is keep up the dialogue and debate like reading all of the varied threads here and elsewhere and participate. Kinda hard to interact with the news on TV or in print.

It could be stress. Some people respond to stressful situations by talking, some nervously, some just saying what comes to mind. He’s retiring, a new situation that he may find uncomfortable and somewhat stressful.
The more nervous my wife is the more she needs to fill the space with sound. I’m just the opposite.

Bingo! That's one reason I spend so much time here & on other sites at age 80...after Cindy's latest MS bout, we're semi shut-ins, venturing forth mainly for medical appointments and resupply missions. Not much out and about for interactions with others. So, web surfing helps me stay cognitive.

Another plus here is that I learn "stuff", reading about projects, personal product reviews, etc. A wide range of talents on this board...probably wider than any other site I visit.

To many boomers, telling stories is a way of teaching and sharing
information the teller feels is important.
A lesson learned for example.
Telling the same one over and over is just due to the teller not being able
to remember who or when he has told it before.

My wife says I do that.
I'll be telling her what happened at the grocery store
and she says "I know, you told me that yesterday".
It could be a sign of something bad, but more likely just
occasional absent-mindedness.

She also says I've done it since we first met a long time ago ;)

I have been prone to this for a long time...if not forever. It is not that I don't realize that I am retelling a story (as I tell the same ones to many folks) ...I just may not remember who I told it to (as I seem to only have a limited number for stories to tell and enjoy telling them). Sometimes I catch myself and realize it is one I already told. I guess it is good that I am very honest as a prevaricator might just change the characters/ending.

Jinx

Go look at his car. Dents/dings/scrapes are an indicator of diminishing abilities.

He might just be a boring guy.

I have been accused of this by family. Thing is, I only have so many stories. And, I really seem to communicate VIA storytelling.

My memory is better than most. For now.

When we get older, we accrue less stories, but the ones we have? They're dandies. There so good, we just love to tell them again and again. It's fun. So next time you hear the story about that golf weekend with Bob and the stripper girl? Remember, it's for the teller's enjoyment, not so much yours.

Just laugh and say, "wow!" Be kind. Make their day.

Say Hello in There. Hello.

My best friends grandmother had a 69 cutlass. The driver side was pristine, but the passenger side was all beat up. She was aware enough to keep her distance on the driver side, but not the passenger side.

My buddy has been doing it forever. I finally started telling him when Ive heard a story 10 times so now he realizes that he is doing it and usually stops himself. Sometimes he cant help it and tells the stories anyway. He is the best friend a guy could have so I try to overlook it. I am sure I have some bad habits also.

Not necessarily.
"Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life, while Alzheimer's is a specific disease. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia." https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/difference-between-dementia-and-alzheimer-s
I deal with a lot of older folks (70-85 years old) in my job. A number of them are at the stage in aging that the are reverting back to childhood in their mental state (think Bell Curve). They get scared or agitated very easily. They also are lonely and will try to extend the phone call to have someone to talk to. They also want to feel needed or important. We spend a lot of time having to validate that their opinion matters.

IMO telling old 'war stories' of the 'good old days' is just wanting to not be left out. I would be more concerned if the story started changing.

Bad eyesight and depth perception. You will notice that elderly drivers like the left lane because they can see where the lane ends. The right side of the car is too far away and they can't see down to the ground so their depth perception of where the lane ends is harder to calculate. They are more likely to misjudge the right side of the car.

There's a few things going on there.

Everyone knows that elderly relative that remembers every story, every name, and every detail from their early life, but can't remember what they had for lunch.

There's another thing where - you collect your best stories and you get good at telling them.

Perhaps your coworker has a combo plate of the two.

Your job is to be kind so that people will be kind to you when you don't realize you're doing it too.

That reminds me of this one time when I

Nope. He's trolling you, bro.

^this. Which is why I put in the time to create new stories.

If I ever get to meet you Dixie I think we might cook up a good one! SmileWavy

I tell repeat stories some to people and they are kind thankfully. As noted it's a gift to the story teller when folks just listen.

(Most repeated story) Tom, who is ten years older than me was a bus mechanic and headed up the maintenance/custodial crew at a school run by nuns. I don't know if it was a convent but the nuns lived there. A call came in a toilet was leaking. Guy goes out. No leak Tom goes out. No leak. Sister, this is not leaking. She says, it does when you lean back on it.

What do you call looking for your phone in a frenzy like I did the other night at the Chinese take out place and was telling peeps there I can't believe I lost it and just had it - the young lady says isn't that your phone in your hand?

Thank you for the compliment. :)

The eyeglasses thing on top of your head.

thx for sharing Zeke. some good info. take care.

When my Mom really started to "lose it" her long term primary care doc attributed it to her history of heart issues. Vascular Dementia. Blood supply issues to the brain kill off cells. Some 8 or so years later and she's a mess. Has lost most of her memory and the delusions are getting pretty creative. She is really starting to lose her language as well.

I have a buddy who is 65. One of my best friends. He has been telling the same stories over and over since I've known him. He has a great heart, but is one of those guys who has to be the one talking in a group of people. We just laugh at him and give him crap about it.

This was my dad's car. His house had a side driveway leading into the garage.

I'm 73 and I'm beginning to dislike driving at night. I have a 944 Porsche and getting in/out of that thing is a PITA. I'm not a nimble as I use to be.

Dementia is definitely not telling the same stories over and over again. That's just a sign of someone with limited material in their hard drive who always wants to share. We have people here who have been telling the same 4 or 5 stories for 20 years. I have a friend who has been doing it since he was young...we started holding up fingers to indicate how many times he's already told the current story. At least that made it mildly amusing.

I've unfortunately had plenty of experience with real dementia in my family, all on my mom's side. It's like a bad acid trip where my mother, for instance, thinks that she was still married to my father instead of her current husband at the time of ~40 years. She got mad at him and threatened him that her husband is a lawyer when she was actually talking to her husband, not the lawyer she divorced 50 years ago. That would be one of the milder stories of complete break from reality that dementia patients suffer from. We would have been over the moon grateful if she simply told boring stories repeatedly, the dementia killed her in a relatively short time.

Getting forgetful is not dementia, it's simply getting old.

71 here and the new LEDs on approaching cars are murder at night! I have to avert my eyes or I lose vision for a moment.

You need cataract surgery!