Four Steps to Take if Your Senior Is Worried She Has Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease is more than just a little bit of memory loss. November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Month, which gives you and your family a chance to learn a lot more about this condition and how it can affect your senior. If your senior is expressing some concerns about memory or even that she thinks she has Alzheimer’s disease, then sit down and talk about it.
Talk about What She’s Experiencing
Get some details about what your senior is feeling and noticing. Very often older adults are really worried about Alzheimer’s disease and that concern starts to color every situation that doesn’t feel normal. Collecting as much information as possible is going to be really helpful when you and your senior go to visit her doctor together.
Set up a Doctor’s Appointment
The sooner your senior has some answers, the better. Your elderly family member’s doctor can answer questions for her and do some tests to determine whether she’s really dealing with Alzheimer’s disease or whether there might be something else going on. The sooner that your elderly family member has answers, the better. That gives her a chance to sort out her care plan now and talk to you about what she wants and how she wants the rest of her life to go.
Bring All the Information You Have about Her Family History
When you go to the doctor, make sure that you bring whatever you know about your senior’s family history with Alzheimer’s disease and other health conditions. Family history information can tell your senior’s doctor a lot about other possible health issues that could be playing a part in what she’s experiencing. Having the fullest picture possible is going to help.
Start Lining up Help Now
Whether your senior has Alzheimer’s disease or not, she’s already feeling a little concerned about some issues related to memory and possibly other things, too. Having some help on a regular basis gives your senior a little bit of room to breathe and cope with what she’s experiencing. If she does have Alzheimer’s disease, that extra help is going to be important now and in the future.
Just because your elderly family member is worried about Alzheimer’s disease that doesn’t mean that she’s headed down that road. But it does mean that you and your family need to learn as much as you can about Alzheimer’s disease and how it can present.
