Caring for someone with dementia is not only about daily tasks, but also about navigating a silent, ongoing grief that many caregivers don’t feel they can talk about. This grief begins long before the final goodbye, as pieces of your loved one fade with each stage of the disease. TONIGHT, we will be talking about Grief in Dementia Care, where @Laura Wayman and @Jocelyn Ives will share how unfolding grief, anticipatory grief, and acute grief uniquely affect caregivers. Understanding these phases matters because it validates your emotions and reminds you that your sadness, guilt, or even anger are all normal and deeply human responses. Please join this important conversation. | September 23 @ 5:30p.m. PST (AZ) Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/PRzPtXKIRf-NNdHzhSToUg

Might be good to have a Probate Attorney on to have an open discussion about legal preparations families need to make as early as possible in the dementia journey along with how a Probate Attorney actually evaluates a client's ability to legally make important decisions regarding Living Wills, Final Wills, Durable General & Medical Powers of Attorney, and other Estate decisions.

Below is a poem for caregivers I just received from Sergio. He gave me his permission to post it. Warning, you might need a tissue or two while reading it. Thank you Sergio for sharing this beautiful story. “To My Caregivers, My Children” —You didn’t sign up for this. Not for the slow unraveling of the parent you once knew, not for the days that feel like watching me fade in real time. You didn’t sign up for the tremor in my hands, the halting of my words, the way I sometimes stare at the wall because my mind has slipped somewhere you can’t follow. You didn’t sign up for the smell of medicine on my breath, for changing my clothes when I cannot, for the endless cycle of pills, appointments, and tears I try to hide. And yet… here you are. Not turning away. Not running from the parts of this that are ugly, or heavy, or unbearably slow. You see me— not just the shell of me, but the one who taught you to walk, who stayed up in the night when you were sick, who loved you before you even had a name. And now, you love me in the most unglamorous, unphotographed way— with hands that lift me, with patience that holds me together, with a steady presence that says, “I will not leave.” I know it’s hard to watch me die by inches. It’s hard to see me slip away and still come back tomorrow, ready to help me take another slow step. But please know this— every touch, every small mercy you give me is not lost. It is written in the deepest part of me. And if I could, I would gather it all into words and tell you how much it means that my last chapters are being written in your hands. Thank you— for carrying me through the part of life no one dreams about. For showing me that love doesn’t end when the body begins to fade.

From Reza Hosseini Ghomi, MD, MSE on LinkedIn: 40% of people over 85 have a brain disease you've never heard of. It's called LATE, and it's been hiding in plain sight for decades. LATE: Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy Until 2019, these patients were misdiagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease. The symptoms look identical. Memory loss, confusion, decline in daily functioning. But the underlying brain pathology is completely different. Here's what I've learned diagnosing hundreds of dementia cases. LATE vs Alzheimer's — the critical differences: Age of onset: ↳ LATE: Usually after 80 ↳ Alzheimer's: Can start in 60s-70s Progression: ↳ LATE: Slower, more gradual decline ↳ Alzheimer's: More predictable timeline Brain changes: ↳ LATE: TDP-43 protein accumulation in limbic regions ↳ Alzheimer's: Amyloid plaques and tau tangles throughout cortex Response to treatment: ↳ LATE: Doesn't respond to Alzheimer's medications ↳ Alzheimer's: May respond to cholinesterase inhibitors Why this matters for families: I've had patients taking Alzheimer's medications for years with no benefit. Their families assumed the drugs weren't working because the disease was "too advanced." The real reason: They had LATE, not Alzheimer's. LATE typically affects: ↳ Hippocampus and amygdala first (memory and emotion centers) ↳ Causes "hippocampal sclerosis" — shrinkage of memory structures ↳ Often coexists with Alzheimer's pathology (mixed dementia) ↳ More common in women and people with kidney disease The diagnostic challenge: Currently, LATE can only be definitively diagnosed at autopsy. But we're developing biomarkers to identify it in living patients. New blood tests and advanced brain imaging may soon help us distinguish LATE from Alzheimer's during life. This matters because: ↳ Different diseases need different treatment approaches ↳ LATE research is 10 years behind Alzheimer's research ↳ Families deserve accurate prognosis information

A former transportation customer, Peg Meredith, shared a story about her father in Houston, TX who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and was in memory care facility. He was unable to recognize her when she visited. A friend of hers gave her a recipe for a Brain Smoothie and told her she might see some improvement in her father. Peg tried this recipe and in a short period of time he began to recognize her when she visited and his communication skills seemed to improve. She felt he was cognitive enough to take him home and after doing so, found he was remembering the names of his other children and some grandchildren. Though this did not cure his Alzheimer's, Peg was happy for his improved quality of life, even if only for a short period of time. I did try this recipe out on my mother but we did not have the same success as Peg and discontinued making the recipe. However, I still continue to share this recipe as like anything, it's worth giving it a try and though it did not work for my mother, it may work for you. The recipe has a lot of optional ingredients, however, Peg recommended it must have a minimum of 5 specific ingredients in the recipe. These are all identified with the symbol (*). Hope it will benefit and possibly work for you.