My father is acting like everything is fine, now that he's had a "good diagnosis" but I hear otherwise from my aunt...
I noticed some changes in my father's mental state over Thanksgiving. Because we're very close, I was able to talk to him about it and he went to get tested. Today was the "big day" of diagnosis, and my aunt went with him to the doctors...
My father came out of it saying that it went great, not much was wrong, and that the doctor gave him some vitimins and fish oil for him to take.
My aunt however said that he was diagnosed with "Mild Cognitive Imparement" likely due to out of control diabetes and low thyroid, and is supposed to start taking Aricept in addition to his new thyroid medication... The doctor also suggested that he get a long term care policy before he gives him the perscription for Aricept...
Has anyone gone through this before? My father, I think, doesn't want to admit to me that anything is wrong, and likely he heard "it's not alzheimers yet" and stopped listening and wrote off the rest of the diagnosis... This could be part of the imparement, not taking it seriously.
I'm not sure what to do at this point. I'm afraid he's going to run out of money and he's now in the mindset of "it's all fine..." I need to get him to let me into his finances and get him on a budget or he'll be in trouble later.
I live in another state, and plan to start coming down to visit him monthly to check in, I feel a little out of my league on this one. Thanks.
hi Sasha,
It's hard to hear, isn't it? I'm glad you're close enough to him that he'll listen to you. You may need to be the voice of reason again and perhaps write it out on paper just what the doctor has advised and what your feelings on the matter are. Do some research into the insurance issues and show him what can be done now before things turn for the worse.
Best wishes to you and let us know how things are progressing, ok?
LauraL
You didn't mention how old your dad is, or what kind of health he's in generally (other than the diabetes), but I can tell you from my/our experience, if you can get any kind of long-term care insurance, do so ASAP. My grandma got hers about...hmm, maybe ten years ago. She didn't get too much, because it's SO expensive, but even what she got is a gigantic help. We opened a claim on it this summer to help pay for the 24-hour aides she now has, and it really helps defray the cost. From what you're saying now about your dad, it sounds like hopefully he won't need enough care to need the long-term care insurance for a while, but not only do many policies have a waiting period, it's one of those things where the sooner you get it (and the better health you're in), the more you can get for less money (and also, there's usually an age cap; I don't think my grandfather could've gotten any even if he'd been in perfect health). So yeah, I would second Laura's suggestion to start researching the insurance.
And also...even though there's a part of me that wants to frown at the duplicity...I really like that your dad's doctor told you to get the insurance before he gave your dad the script! Probably totally unethical, and possibly illegal, but I know it'll work out better for you. :-) Good luck!
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