He has not been diagnosed yet. My friend has many symptoms I've seen here in this forum. I think he has noticed his memory problems, but will not admit to it. He has a Dr. appt. in June, for a full physical. Will the Dr. tell him he has dementia, or Alzheimer's, If that is the case? Or will they want family to do it? I feel is coming up soon.
My husband, dear Coy, donated his brain to be used in dementia research. This was extremely important to him and I think to research as well. He knew there wasn't a cure for him, but he hoped our grandchildren would have better odds.
On the other hand, my mother's main coping device all her life has been denial. No one has told her she has dementia. We don't see the point. Today when I visited her she wanted to know how she was going to get to dinner. I explained (as we do on each visit) that a helper would come and wheel her into the dining room when it was time. There are a lot of helpers here. Now that you are almost 95 there are some parts that aren't working as well as they used to. It is good you are at a place where there are so many people to help you with getting to the dining room and remembering your appointments and seeing that you have what you need." She is very proud of her age, and intends to live to 100, so for her blaming her impairments as just part of aging seems logical and acceptable. She doesn't need to know she has dementia. My husband did.
This is not a one-size-fits-all situation. It depends on age, personality, life outlook, and other intangibles.
From what I've seen, often a PCP will avoid a diagnosis of this kind but send the patient on to a specialist who will do further testing if dementia is suspected. In our case the specialist talked directly to my husband about his diagnosis. I think this varies a lot from practice to practice.
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