@Tamami I’m so sorry to hear this. It must be very worrying. Hang in there.

@michaelormsby It's not easy to feel so helpless, but fortunately he's improving. Thank you so much.

I’ve been sole caregiver for my wife who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s 4 years ago. It’s a constant struggle to find time to get everything done. Each individual problem is solvable but the totality of budgeting time is a never ending challenge. People may say things like “Don’t burn out, make sure you take care of yourself” but the devil is in the details. (2/6)

Generally I’ve been satisfied with the quality of care my wife has received at University of Utah Health. It’s a large, urban hospital so there’s well qualified specialists in many areas. Having said that there’s a lot of bureaucracy to deal with. I find that each department has its own unwritten rules. A process that spans departments with dependencies means coordinating orders and appts across multiple departments. (3/6)

In our case Medicare has done an excellent job of paying the bills. We both have Medigap policies for the 20% that Medicare doesn’t cover. This is great because, as I mentioned above, time is always short and wrestling with insurance company denials is the last thing you need at this point. (4/6)

Another issue is whether your spouse will require long term healthcare. Generally once there’s a diagnosis LTHC insurance is prohibitively expensive. Medicaid may pick up some of the LTHC cost but only after all other resources have been spent down. Other consideration is that most patients prefer to live in their home with their family for as long as possible. So you may have to plan for how all this will work, including things like power of attorney, financial planning and so on. (5/6)

Sorry for the long-winded reply. It can be overwhelming. If there’s too much to be done I prioritize what has to be done immediately and let the rest slide for a while. And yeah, finding time for your art will probably be a challenge. I tend to do simple, quick sketches so if the effort is interrupted it’s no big deal. Life happens. Good luck. (6/6)