[PinkGirl]

...never thought about it before now. My dad died in 1999 and my mom took a steady decline from then on. She stayed in her own home but needed lots and lots of help from her 3 kids. It was very stressful for all of us. She couldn't remember anything, very confused all the time, but wouldn't move out of her house. We looked after her that way until 2005 when she fell and broke her hip. She had two surgeries and dx with dementia/Alzheimer's. She was in a chronic ward of a hospital for 2 months pending placement in a nursing home (there's only one home in our little town, it has 20 beds). We moved her into the nursing home on July 17/05 and I was diagnosed on Aug.5/05.

My dad had been "not well" for a number of years but nothing ever showed up on tests. He was eventually dx. with lung cancer and died 18 days later.