PunkDizzle - I'm so sorry you and your family are going through this, it is a heart breaking disease.

My very first job (I was 16) I worked in a Skilled Nursing Facility where the majority of the patients had Alzheimer's. It sounds like your dad is in the worse part of the disease (not that there is a better part) where he is aware of what he wants to say or do but just can't get there (if that makes any sense).

You may already be doing this but someone needs to be with him 24hrs a day. If he tries to cook something he could forget it's on the stove or in the oven and possibly cause a fire. He could walk off some where and get lost. I definitely wouldn't let him drive if at all possible, hide the keys, hide the car, whatever it takes. If someone should pull out in front of him or a kid run out in front of him he may not be able to react in time if at all. If he's anything like my grandfather, it will be very difficult, he was blind and still insisting he could drive.

I went to a geriatric specialist last summer because of memory issue's I've been having. I was diagnosed with slight dementia(I'm 40!). The doctor told me that aricept wont reverse the damage but it could keep it from getting worse. The doctor told me the most important thing was to keep my brain active.

You and your family should play little memory games with him, look through pictures of people, vacations that he has taken, or places he has been and discuss them. (remember that time we went to .......) When something needs to be done at his house maybe you could go over and do it and ask him if he could help you. Make it so it doesn't sound like your doing it for him but he is helping you to do it.

My mother is also showing signs that something isn't quite right. She keeps chalking it up to old age but she isn't that old, she's only 65. She talks to herself from the minute she wakes up right up until she falls asleep with out stopping. The only thing she will make herself is a bagel in the morning, if I don't make her something to eat after that she would go the rest of the day with out eating. I don't know why I haven't thought of it before your post but I'm going to get her in with the Geriatric specialist for a consult.

I know this is all very basic and you are probably already doing a lot of it. I wish I had some magic words that would help but I will keep you and your family in my prayers.

Teresa