What to do when Grandpa starts being forgetful?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parent did a good job masking alzheimer’s and the doctor did not think they had it, even when it seemed to us that something was wrong.

One day my parent experienced a stressor which caused the mask to drop and then we had to race to help them. And only when mask dropped did the doctor diagnose them with alzheimer’s.

Look into next steps of caretaking even without an official diagnosis. With my parent under doctor’s care, all the doctor is able to do is give pills that prolong the stage of the disease they are in, they monitor which stage they are in, and answer questions. Essentially nothing substantive can really be done.

I agree that there’s a long and frustrating period where the doctors really don’t help. Once you get to the palliative care stage, the medical community can be helpful again. More for managing mobility and secondary health stuff. Capital Caring is a local org that does hospice but also a lot of advanced/long term illness stuff that can be really helpful.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that he might have HBP and this is vascular dementia that can be halted if the blood pressure is brought under control.