Forgetfulness/signs of dementia

Hi Samantha

I am sorry to hear that  your partner had treatment for oesophageal cancer 3 years ago. I can imagine that it has been a difficult journey for you both. I am sorry to hear that he does still have some issues from his cancer treatment. 

I wonder if a routine check up for his cancer related side effects would be an idea and perhaps routine bloods to check there is nothing physical that is causing the other symptoms. 

I can understand your fears about dementia and if it would help, please do give the Support Line a call to talk things over. 

I will post a link below which may be helpful. There is a phone number that you can call to talk through any concerns. There is also some useful information generally about dementia. 

Home - Dementia UK

Jane

Hi Samantha, my husband is 10 months post surgery. What I really push him to do is make sure that he requests from our doctor regular blood tests every quarter, he is very low on iron. A quite common condition after an esophagectomy is low vitamin b12  , caused by new plumbing, malabsorption of vitamins which is made worse I believe by taking omeprazole/lansoprazole. One of the symptoms of b12 deficiency is depression, confusion, mood swings, forgetfulness etc, this can take a few years to manifest apparently, a lot of people who have had an esophagectomy have regular b12 injections. Perhaps you could talk to your doctor about this and have him get some blood tests as a start

I find this very interesting and totally get what you're saying . My husband had surgery 2 years ago although hes older 63,and is getting more forgetful!! I try not to pick him up on it as he doesn't think its a problem.

He has a telephone appointment with his cancer team next week so ill try to get him to mention it and let you know.Also struggling with tiredness so hopefully its just a matter of a vuramin deficiency.

Tale care and i hope you.get some answers .

Thank you so much for this you have been very helpful x

Thank you for this information I did not know this, I will try to get him to ring for some blood tests

Thank you very much Vonn, I would be interested to see what they say, I know everyone is different but trying to get my husband to ring the Doctor is a whole other task in itself :(  He does see the changes himself and Im wondering is this scary and he wont ask for help, hes so frustrated but its making me even more frustrated because he wont ring for help. x

I understand  my husband also realises things are not quite right but says its not that bad   he also wouldn't call anyone about it but as he has a routine  chat im hoping that he'll mention  it and hopefully get blood tests done.

Hopefully others may be able to help as I appreciate it is very concerning. 

Take care and stay strong 

Vonn. Xxx

Hi Samantha.  I am sorry that you and your partner are experiencing this issue . I would suggest that your first port of call should be the Upper GI specialist nurse. Their remit is to support both patient and family and he is still under their care even after 3 years.. Of course it may or may not have anything to do with his major surgery but if his GI nurse is anything like mine he will get the help he needs quickly from this source whatever the prime cause. It sounds from what you say that you must be the one who takes the initiative on this as otherwise it would appear nothing is likely to get started. I do hope you can get this progressed.