I probably don't have anything new to add, but I'm glad I came across this group and get to vent a little. My Dad and step-Mom live in the Southwest, while I live in Florida. My two sisters live near them. My Dad has been moving through the stages of Alzeimers while my step-Mom, as far as I can tell, has been in denial and shouldering the entire burden of caring for him without taking advantage of any help available in the community or in the retirement facility they've moved to. I've spoken to her about it so many times and she won't even put him in a daycare. They lived in their home until he left his pants on the floor, which tripped her and broke her hip. When there's a crisis like that then my sisters and brother-in-law take charge and make a change. Now, according to Mom, it takes her all morning to get him dressed to go down for lunch. She says she needs him to carry heavy things like bags of groceries. Now she's been in the hospital with internal bleeding for about a week. Hopefully that's taken care of, but in the meantime everyone else has taken turns caring for Dad and decided he needs to move to the Alzeimers unit.

I keep saying I'm going to visit, but this is the hard part. I don't want to see him like this. When I called the other day to see how Mom is they put him on the phone and I couldn't understand his speech anymore.