Hi @lorrie2772 My name is Scott and welcome to Mayo Connect. I was my wife's caregiver during her 14+ year war with brain cancer, which gave her a multitude of symptoms similar to dementia patients. I'm happy to share some of my experiences in the hopes they might be of help to you, but I also understand each patient, their disease, and their caregiver's journey are unique.

While I have no magic suggestions, I will share one thing that worked for me. It was to look at caregiving one day at a time. My wife's behavior often changed by the day or during the day so this gave me the strength to think I only had to make it through one day -- and then know the next might well be far different.

I also kept telling myself her outbursts, anger, acting out, etc. were the disease speaking and not the woman I loved. For me, realizing it was something occurring beyond her control helped me cope with them and also to grow some thicker skin so I could begin to ignore the hurt a bit more each day.

Lastly, I will say be kind to yourself and know perfection is unable to be achieved in caregiving. We can only do what we can and the best we can. I like to say you will find superheroes in the comics, but Superman and Wonder Woman were not caregivers!

Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

Strength, Courage, & Peace