@buggirl55 I understand your dad's pain in the sense that his situation (and yours) is very overwhelming and thinking that he can handle it. My 63 year old husband was diagnosed 3 years ago with dementia caused by alzheimers. I have been his only caregiver with little to no outside support from family and friends and it has been very frustrating, but i keep hanging in there and do the best that I can, although I will admit that I have gone thru the denial phase of this as well, and the frustrations and impatience and everything else that goes along with it...not to mention the same little amount of sleep as you get. Not only does he have dementia and alzheimers, he also has aphasia so it's hard to communicate effectively about almost everything. This disease has progressed alot faster that I thought it would and I too am grieving the loss of my husband. My best friend of 25 years who has been the one and only real help for me convinced me it was time to get professional help. As hard as it was to hear that, I knew she was right. But because I couldn't imagine someone else taking care of him like I do, or better, I kept putting off making those phone calls, let alone of where to begin. Soooo she started the process for me and i've gotten great information, qualified for placement services and am feeling better about it now. I'm looking into placing him in memory care facility which is where he needs to be. I'm still in the process of getting things finalized up but like my social worker told me.... " you don't want to burn out. Let someone else be his caregiver and that will give you the "best" part of your husband that you can enjoy when you do see him" And those were my thoughts exactly.
I know the situation with your parents is a hard one and i wish you all the strength from above to help you with this journey.