what are the earliest signs of memory loss?
 

wait..what was i talking about? oh yea, vegetables.


okay..serious. i have a coworker that cant remember anything. i asked him to track how many sheet piles we had left so we could tell where this wall we were building would end. he kept forgetting. so i drove by on the last day and counted myself. 11 left (remember 11)..they are 4.33' wide driven, so we could estimate where the sheet wall would end. we were shooting from the hip to stop a road from sliding out.

i told him we have 11 left.
he pulled out a calculator to do the math, and asked me..how many do we have left?
11.
he forgets the answer, pulls out the calc.."how many?
11
over a 30 minute conversation, i tell him maybe 5 more times. in the end he jotted it down. (after asking me again)

what goes first? short term memory? it has gotten bad over the past two months.

Yikes. Is he on any med's? (some are like 'date-rape' drugs)

I forget.

Actually, I do all the time. 55yo, short term memory isn't as bad as described, but not what it used to be.

Edit: good point island.

When you start the same thread 4 times in a three day period?

Kidding. I have a guy that works fro me that has to write everything down because he has a terrible memory. If this is recent for your guy it could be stress or some other more simple thing. Do you all do random drug testing?

Being older, I can relate to occasional minor lapses in memory - like recalling a more efficient/descriptive word. What you describe is way beyond that. He needs to talk to somebody who can evaluate and advise him - unless he's just putting you on. I can attest to the side effects of some meds. I was on Vitorin for cholesterol for some time. At one point I started experiencing confusion and some short term memory loss. I started worrying I was developing some kind of mental deficiencies. Soon after, I got the major muscle aches, pains, and loss of strength. I stopped the medication and all the symptoms disappeared within a couple of days.

Ya' know, they say the memory is the second thing to go.

i first thought it was just him being lazy.

first noticed it in january when i told him i was going to AZ to hunt on Jan 23.

his favorite three questions were:
1. where are you going?
2. what for?
3. when are you going? for how long?

he would ask me every time someone i have not told got the info. i thought he was joking.

i let the supervisors know. it aint on me if we find him driving to oregon. which he thinks is the grocery store.

We all have different strengths and weaknesses. I have trouble with names, and words, but am pretty good with numbers and anything visual (faces, buildings, CARS )sticks like glue.
The thing to look for is change. If someone's or your memory or other cognitive functions are changing at a rapid rate that could be a sign of something going on.
My mom, who is 94, is really losing here short term, but recollections from her childhood (in the 20's!) are clear as a bell.

He could have something serious going on. We had a guy at site who couldn't remember the combo to the site trailer and was just standing by the door in tears. We got him back home and to the doctor and he has serious neurological issues and is no longer able to work. When he first started showing signs we just thought he was slacking. Sounds somewhat similar to what you were thinking.

Ask him to draw the face of a clock when there is no clock for him to look at. If he struggles with that, he needs to see a doctor ASAP.

He needs to be checked out for sleep apnea or risk of stroke.

LOL! You know you're an old fart when they ask you to do this during check ups...I was asked to draw 8:20. I asked if 8:18 was okay...explaining that it's the time used in many watch ads because it shows all the watch face features...

Of course, you MEANT to say 10:10, right? Because maybe you had *forgotten* that almost every watch shown on display is set to 10:10...
LMGTFY

I used to know this

LOL! Next time, I'm thinking I might draw a digital watch for them. But I notice not a lot of humor in the medical community.

Besides, Altzheimers (sp?) and Dementia are pretty serious subjects, aren't they?

It's actually something that has me somewhat concerned lately.

I find myself sitting there struggling to remember a word, phrase, name, even if I heard it 5 seconds ago. Worse when it's something you know you've known your entire life.

It's disconcerting if you are self aware.

What was the subject about again?

I worked with someone like that. He would take a phone message, then five minutes later he could not recall who he had talked to.

He had several serious car accidents, which we attributed to his inability to pay attention while driving.

He died of Alzheimers IN HIS EARLY FIFTIES.

Id answer you, but I forgot. LOL! J/k;)

I'm with the monkey. I've noticed the same problems. Common words that escape until I make an effort to remember that particular word. Usually I use phonetic tricks to start the spelling of the escaped word, and therefore work into that word. Scary stuff.