My husband also was 69 when diagnosed w/ALZ, 9 yrs ago (me, 59 then). He was on Namenda & Aricept in the beginning, then after 3 yrs, Sertraline (generic for Zoloft) was added. He's on the generics now for Namenda & Aricept. 'Also on D3, fish oil, turmeric & Preservision Arends 2 (for macular degeneration). He's doing fairly well, still. 'Fills his own meds in the weekly pill organizer; beats me at Scrabble & Sequence often. He helps alot w/chores (emptying dishwasher, folding clothes, vacuuming, dusting, etc.). A DayClox clock has helped. Avoid surgery as much as possible, as memory loss & anesthesia do not mix. He's had hernia & cataract surgery in the last 5 yrs, but I was always insisting the anesthesia be as mild as possible. Went to Mayo-MN for 2nd opinion, in early 2011, & was told he must stop driving. Great advice! He drove the first 42 yrs we were together; I get the second 42 yrs, & he gets the third 42 yrs! Gotta keep the humor going. Good luck.

Hello @ice I am sorry to read of your husband's healthcare journey, but it is good to hear you are somewhere with good medical care!

While you will find many hints, tips, and suggestions here on the caregiving discussion group, I am wondering if you have checked out the resources of the national Alzheimer's Association at http://www.alz.org? Also there is some good stuff at http://www.caregiver.org.

As a longtime caregiver for my wife, who while suffering from brain cancer but suffered from many dementia-like symptoms, my daughter-in-law's father who had Alzheimer's, and my mother-in-law who suffered from frontal temporal dementia, one of the things I can say is the dementia journey is highly individualized as are the caregiving demands of each patient. One thing I found in each was routine was incredibly important and helpful to the patient as well as the caregiver. Changes of any kind (location, medical visits, etc.) were often causes for additional decline.

What educational resources have you accessed so far?

Strength, courage, and peace!

Hello @ice. My name is Virginia Naeve and my mom suffered with Alzheimer's dementia for 8 years. I was her caregiver, as well as having her in Assisted Living after several years. I felt I had to share some tips and information that I learned over the years, so I started a website which holds my blogs. It has a lot of information about dementia as well as helpful tips. Please look it up. It is called A New Path for Mom and it can be found at http://www.anewpathformom.com. I am planning to have a page where I can post the most recent research information and hopefully will get to that soon. It's tough. Please reach out as it will make you feel like you are not alone.

Hi @ice - I'm so sorry about your husband's diagnosis. My husband was diagnosed with multi-domain dementia (Alzheimer's and vascular dementia) about 4 years ago when he was 74. It felt like a huge kick in the gut when I first heard those words. I can only imagine how you are feeling being so far away. The single best resource I've come across is a class called The Savvy Caregiver Program. I don't know how much it costs because I took it through our local Council on Aging, but it was truly worth its weight in gold! Here's a link to it:
http://license.umn.edu/technologies/z08156_the-savvy-caregiver-program-for-alzheimer-caregiver-training
The next best resource was a local Caregiver's Support Group which meets twice a month - again, at our local Council on Aging. See if you can find a support group near you. It is such a relief to be able to talk freely to others who are facing the same issues.

Last, from my own personal experience, I can share that vascular dementia has a little different trajectory than Alzheimer's. All else equal, Alzheimer's can tend to be a gradual decline whereas vascular dementia can have sharp drops and then plateaus. It is scary and difficult. I would say that if you can possible get your head turned around to focus on what things you can still do and what abilities he still has, (instead of what has been lost), your days will be better and even include some moments of joy. Can I ask you what prompted you to have testing done? And what are the issues that are most troubling right now?