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Elder Rage

Summary

After turning around this seemingly impossible situation, I decided to write a book about it to help others who are trying to manage "challenging" elders. The result: Elder Rage or, Take My Father...Please! How to Survive Caring For Aging Parents. Written in a humorous tone to make it palatable, people learn to identify the earliest warning signs of dementia which are very intermittent. Life-long behavior patterns start to get distorted.

I stress that the use of medications can slow the dementia down from progressing as fast as it would otherwise, keeping a loved one in Stage One an extra 2-4 years. Statistically families wait four years before reaching out, usually after a crisis, but by then the loved one is already in Stage Two which requires full-time care.

By being sensitive to the early warning signs, getting to the right doctors, getting the right combination of medications, and understanding that demented does not means stupid, many of these disruptive behaviors can be managed. The bottom line message is that there can still be a good life after a diagnosis of dementia if it is properly managed medically and behaviorally.