What are the first symptoms of Alzheimer's?

I'm concerned about these symptoms - could it be early onset Alzheimers?

• My mother is 55, and she's always been aggressive and had a poor memory. However she's recently started to notice for herself that she's forgetful, rather than shouting at people for not telling her things which she'd simply forgotten about. Could that suggest that she's noticed her memory getting worse, rather than just continuing her usual forgetfulness? The symptom which really worried me was a lack of feeling and dexterity in her fingertips. She described a card game where she kept picking up the wrong number of cards, and today she seemed to be suffering from a similar problem. Is this usually connected with Alzheimers? And if she does have Alzheimers, should I try and convince her to refer herself to her GP? She hates being seen as a hypochondirac, but she's had a lot of health problems in the last few years, so she's loath to even pick up the phone and make an appointment.

• Answer:

  stress and depression can also bring on memory loss (as does pregnancy) the lack of feeling in the fingers could be some nerve problems or blood clots, diabetics have most problems with that. i dont know if its connected to alzheimers. my grandmother passed away almost 5 years ago after a nearly 10 year fight with dementia which is in sort of like alzheimers but i dont know the specifics but i would ask a doctor about it just to know for sure