Linda
I am sorry to hear about your father. I have a suggestion and I hope you will insist the Dr. will do this test for you. I suggest the transferrin saturation test for iron overload in your dad's blood. There are other iron test but, insist on this one. I have iron-overload and was diagnoised after 3 years of problems. Memory and confusion was a slight problem for me at the time. There are a lot of symptons for the problem and it does act on the brain and both of my parents were diagnoised with Alzheimers and died never being diagnoised with hemmochromatosis(iron overload) but, when the Dr. discovered I had it they sent my blood to Mayo Clinic to determine if mine was genetic. It was and both my parents had it and never knew. I suggest this test for memory loss, diabetes, and pain because it causes all of these, plus it attacks our organs and cancer loves to feed on iron. I hope you understand why I do suggest this. I am much better after hundreds of flabotomies.(drawing a pint of blood at a time) this, is the only way to control iron overload. Good Luck and I hope this is of help to you with your Dad.