Hypochondria by Proxy

I think I may be paranoid or a hypochondriac by proxy.

My Dad has a bad memory. Not just "forgetting whether you've paid the gas bill" bad memory.

Dad phoned me this morning and left a message about my birthday. He phoned again this afternoon to ask me to phone him ref the morning message.

Well I didn't phone because we'd a complete conversation about my birthday the day before.

So when I did call him it was clear he hadn't remembered talking to me the day before. In this situation I could react one of two ways: be paranoid that Dad doesn't remember talking to me, brush it off because Dad does forget things sometimes.

Well naturally I choose paranoia. Then the paranoia develops and I imagine Dad is suffering from Alzheimer's, hence hypochondria by proxy. I phone my Ian, long suffering brother (long suffering because I'm his sister), and ask for his advice: should I talk to Dad about it, try to phone Dad's doctor?

Ian tells me not to worry, he's seeing Dad tomorrow. If anything is amiss he'll call me.

But I couldn't leave it at that. I had to do some research into the symptoms of Alzheimer's just to see if Dad may be exhibiting a few more signs. What I found was that yes, he is showing more than one indication of this particular form of dementia (you see I now know that Alzheimer's is just one form of dementia). So I now think he needs to see his doctor.

Either that or I need to research Hypochondria by proxy (which sounds quite cool) and go and see my own doctor.