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Tell Us About Your TrialMatch Experience!
The Alzheimer's Association TrialMatch is looking for your feedback! To help us improve the tool and better support people living with dementia, caregivers, and healthy volunteers in finding clinical studies, we invite you to complete a brief survey. The survey takes less than five minutes to complete, and your input will…
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Welcome! New Forum for Caregivers
This is a new discussion forum for caregivers supporting a parent living with Alzheimer's or other dementia.
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what is expected in memory care?
I am trying to understand what is expected in a memory care facility regarding personal hygiene, dietary needs and housekeeping. We just moved my dad (just turned 86) from on memory care place to a new one, mostly to get him closer to mom so she can see him every day. THe old place had a TERRIBLE menu. Supposed to have…
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Need to vent about my brother
Mom is diabetic and has edema in her legs. She refuses to wear support stockings and eats any sweet treat she is offered, yet asks me every time I bring her snacks if they are low calorie (not low carb), because she is worried about her diabetes. If I buy her low carb stuff she doesn’t like it, so I’m usually vague and…
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Caring for Mom full time
Hi. I am new to this forum. I have moved my mom in with me due to her Alzheimer's progression. This was a quick decision not giving much time to prepare my home. I have recently needed to secure my home due to her hallucinations & exiting. I am on a Family leave of absence without help to relieve me. I live in a different…
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AL care plan, doctor's weak follow-up
I had a care plan meeting at Mom's ALF 2 weeks ago. I left the meeting feeling really good because the staff there really seemed to understand everything that was going on with my mom, have observed the same things I have, and seemed to have a good plan of attack for helping her with some things like her anxiety and her…
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New to this community
Hello my Mom has Alzheimer's and I am really struggling. I want to make sure I am doing everything right. My mom keeps coming into the kitchen and making food, but she is not cooking the food properly and she eats and then forgets she ate and comes down to make another meal. How do you stop someone from cooking and…
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recurrent UTIs
has anyone figured out how to address these for their parent? my mom keeps getting them. she lives with an aide but the aide is not paid to change her in the middle of the night. I dont know if that's what is causing these but they keep coming back and she is getting weaker and weaker. she takes cranberry each day. and she…
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Another Surgery?!?
Today dad goes in for surgery. He has severely unmanaged type 2 diabetes and his last surgery advanced his dementia so much that he has gone from stage 3 to stage 5 quickly. He is having yet another digit removed from his foot and the hospital is acting like it is no big deal… I feel it is a bigger deal than they are…
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Unknown dementia
So DD bloodwork does not indicate Alzheimer’s and his MRI shows moderate atrophy of the hippocampus and mild atrophy of the brain overall. So while he has all the symptoms of Stage 4 dementia we don’t know what is causing it which makes it even harder to plan for future care. My research leads me to believe that he has VD.…
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How to handle their distrust of doctors
I had a care meeting for my mom at her ALF last week, and they want to have her PCP (who is part of the ALF) evaluate a few things, including her debilitating back pain, her anxiety, and her evening depression, which is probably some form of sundowning. They also want to do some further cognitive screening. They let her…
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Needing to talk to someone, anyone who can relate
My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in February. This was after years of me pushing and pushing. Till she finally realized she needed help. She would get lost while driving every day. At that point she was still working 12-hour shifts 3 days a week. We got the diagnosis and everything turned upside down. She couldn't…
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Floating in the Ocean with a Life Jacket kind of Day...
Hello friends, can I ask the question that some of us have? Why is this so hard?!? All of it. The grief of watching your parent fade away. Six months ago, she couldn't recognize the banana from the apple. Three weeks ago, I started feeding her because she stopped initiating to start eating and she can't tell the difference…
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Lawyer tomorrow
Going back to the lawyer tomorrow to sign all of the things. I’m torn between just getting the documents signed and having my Mom rethink the backups. Should something happen to me, medical and financial DPOA goes to my husband (60) and my Mom’s niece (65) jointly. She has not spoken with either of them about this. I have…
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Companion Care NYC?
Hi - I'm wondering if someone has had good experience with Duet or any other "companion care" in NYC they can reco. My mom is 77 and diagnosed about a year ago with ALZ. She is stubborn and "presents" as independent, because she still lives alone and has coping skills to take care of herself, but I am noting changes/faster…
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Dad...
My Dad was a narcissistic man my entire life so far and now he is in the nursing home for PT from a back surgery he had at the end of April. Since his surgery, we have discovered he has had multiple strokes, he has been delirious and he has vascular dementia. The surgery took 8 hours and with all of his other issues such…
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New to this group
My mom diagnosed with Alzheimer's or psychosis with dementia. And Its getting worse.
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Caring for dad
I am one of 7 children. My mother just passes away 2 months ago, and my dad was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's. My siblings and I have been trying to care for him by taking turns, but it seems like it's not going to work this way. We all have full time jobs and families. I go back to work in a week and I am stressed that…
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Taking Mom Out
New here - Mom has been in MC for a year (this week actually), she still asks when she is going home and her anger and agitation has increased. We did not take her out of the facility for several months following her admission but have done so more recently (breakfast, shops, etc.) but the last two visits she seems to be…
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Testing/changes due to diagnosis of parent
Just curious if anyone has had testing due to the diagnosis of a parent. If so, what kind of testing? Has anyone taken any legal steps should you face the same diagnosis? What would you do differently? I am adamant that I do not want to be cared for by family in the event that I develop Alz. (My Mom, her Mom and my mom’s…
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Moving to memory care- how do I tell her?
We have made the decision to move my mom to memory care. We can't decide how to tell her. The facility says to just tell her the day she is going. Her cognition is still ok and she'll see this as us "tricking" her. We are considering having a discussion with her about this but we k ow she'll be resistant.....any advice?
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Opinion on Hallucinating
Hi all. Taking care of my mom that has Alzheimer's. Working with the neurologist and PCP to get her on a medication that will help with her anxiety and hallucinating. So far one helps her take a 5 minute nap and sleep better at night. My mom is hallucinating all day. she may briefly speak to someone and make sense when out…
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What has changed in a year and a half
Greetings all. In September 2023, I moved both my parents into my home. My dear mom has Alzheimer's. My dear dad has mild cognitive impairment. They are 85 and 87 respectively. For more background, see the discussion at https://alzconnected.org/discussion/64542/moving-my-folks-into-my-house#latest btw - I copied and pasted…
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Careing for mom
So, my husband and i moved in with my mom after my stepdad died. He left her with nothing and we didnt want her to be alone. About a,month after we moved in, mom had a stroke, only to find out that this was a second one she had,which came as a stock to my sister and i vecause she bever told us about the first one. So since…
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Forgot who I was dealing with :(
Just a vent… I made the tragic error today of forgetting that my mom is not really the same person anymore, the mom I used to be able to have meaningful talks and heart-to-hearts with. … We were having such a nice visit today. I took her my old baby book and we had such a fun time reading it together. Things took a turn…
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one of those self critical days
Hello dear community, I am having one of those days when I question my decisions and see faults and what's lacking. I know that's silly because over these 2+ years I've done several things that needed doing to keep dad safe. Ugh. The reality, though, is that even when I remind myself of the positives I still feel critical.…
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How to handle repeated requests to buy a new car
Hello All, It's me again, with the ongoing car dilemma. We sold my husband's car in late May. He had not driven it in over a year. Now that it is gone, he is insistent that he needs a new car. He talks about it every day, to anyone who will listen. Every time we drive somewhere, he is pointing out how everyone has a new…
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"Fairly successful" outing to Museum yesterday
My mom (early-mid ALZ) lives in AL (without support, but has restrictions, not allowed to leave building w/out family) had tried to sign up to go into San Francisco in the AL van to see the Monet & Venice exhibit, but the AL appropriately didn't let her go, telling her it was booked. The residents are not chaperoned, just…
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Mixed Signals
Hi. A few weeks ago my mom was having issues communicating, seemingly out of nowhere. She would just stop talking and looking to me as if she wanted me to answer for her and shrugging. After lots of doctor’s appointments, they think it was TIA. Since starting Plavix, she’s had no more episodes, but during the barrage of…
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No purpose
I am struggling with helping my Mom feel she still has a purpose. After 2 1/2 years in AL, she was recently (3 weeks ago) moved to MC. Her anxiety was increasing and staff felt as though the smaller environment would be better for her. In between activities (she would go, but rarely actively participate) she didn't know…
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Does anyone else feel this way?
Both of my parents have memory issues. My mom has a diagnosis of Alzheimers- probably late stage 4, and my dad has dementia, non specified, because he refuses to see a doctor. I don't want to spend time with them anymore because it's hard—— for all the reasons. In an effort to keep this post short, they are safe, have…
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Neurologist Visit for mom
Hi everyone- I am new to this. My mom has some kind of dementia. She is very difficult to get to the doctor, talks in circles and lies and makes up excuses why she can’t go. I need for her to see a physician so they can declare her incapacitated so her Medical POA will be invoked, so I can legally help her stay safe. She…