First, the lashing out and threats are the disease, not your husband. I learned from Careblazers that a good response is “I’m sorry” even if you did nothing wrong. It is referred to as swallowing your pride. It diffuses conflict fairly quickly.

My husband is 82 and was diagnosed with AD in 2023. He has good/bad days. He will “plateau” for a while and then he will decline. Around 5 pm, he will start to “sundown.” He has a more difficult time with words. Every day he struggles to tell me something and cannot. I encourage him to slow down. I wait patiently (on the outside) until he can verbalize what he wants to say.

I’ve had to learn patience and not showing my impatience. I love my husband completely and that helps me. My faith in God strengthens me daily. Reading my Bible daily reassures me. Without God, I couldn’t do this.

Fortunately, Steve still remembers me. There has only been 3-4 times that he didn’t recognize someone. We are stable and express our love for each other multiple times a day. I believe he is in stage 5 (of 7) - Careblazer’s I am dreading stage 6 yet I think through how to prepare. With God’s help I’ll get through it. Stage 7 is death. AD makes me sad and I know Steve will die from it. It is very difficult to watch him decline. I often think of wonderful times in the past and remember how he was then. It helps me. Diana