Getting a diagnosis

PRN

I’m in Auckland, how do I get a diagnosis please?

I feel with out my DH hearing it from a professional, we can’t move forward. Help anyone, please?

M1

PRN, there are two sides to this. First, you do need a diagnosis to be sure that treatable things have been ruled out (this generally entails blood work and brain imaging). However, "hearing it from a professional" will probably not have the impact on your DH that you want it to. Look up anosognosia, it's common, and it's a feature of the illness that he truly can't appreciate that anything is wrong. I've told the story frequently here on myself: i was convinced that if our beloved internist told my partner that she had Alzheimer's, she would have an "aha" moment and thenceforward would understand she had dementia and would recognize that she needed to defer to me for decision making. He laughed when i suggested this, and he was right. She's now been in memory care for18 months and still does not realize that there's a problem.

I would start with your primary care provider, they can do a lot of the necessary evaluation and can refer you as necessary. You may need to put your concerns in writing, and you may need to use an excuse to get him to go-visit is required by insurance, etc.

toolbeltexpert

Prn welcome to the forum M1 is correct about anosognosia and ruling out the things that can mimic dementia.

I got my wife to the doctors office because she had a small bump that was red on her neck. The day of the visit the bump was almost gone and she tried to back out of the appointment I had to tell her there would be a 300$ penalty if she backed out so she went and that started our diagnosis!

Definitely communicate prior to the visit privately the things you have observed.

Not sure how the legal things go where you are but here in the states we get legal documents that let the spouse without dementia make all the decisions for the pwd. Getting all the legal stuff is a priority here.

Definitely search on this site for anything you maybe dealing with.

Keep posting

Ed1937

You have excellent replies above. There is no test that will confirm dementia. Everything else that might cause the symptoms must be ruled out. You will spend a lot of time for the tests, but that is necessary when it is done properly.

Your PCP can run blood work and other tests, then if necessary, you will want to see a neurologist who sees dementia patients as a large part of his/her practice. Here is a link to neurologists in your area, but it doesn't indicate whether or not dementia is their specialty. https://www.google.com/search?q=neurologists+in+auckland&rlz=1CAVARX_enUS975US975&oq=neurologists+in+auckland&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDg1NjRqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#cobssid=s

SDianeL

Here's the Alzheimer's website for NZ. It may be more specific to Auckland. https://alzheimers.org.nz/