“...we’ve tried to get both she and my father-in-law to change doctors, but to no avail.”
Same here, with my in-laws. Dad has Alzheimers. They like their GP and continue to go to him although he does nothing pro-active to help the situation. They LIKE him. He’s NICE. He smiles, says, “uh huh”, takes their money, and they go away until next month. Then they do it all over again. We can’t change their minds.
I know where you’re coming from. The way we handled it was we asked our love one to see a “specialist” and told her it did not mean giving up her beloved GP at all. Through this line of reasoning, we were able to add in the care of someone who actually had a clue what he was doing.
Don’t get mad at the Doc, as there is really not much he can do. Aricept is the drug of choice these days, but the Docs I’ve talked to don’t think it is very effective.
I’ve seen this disease up close with my mother in law and now with my 90 year old mother. It is so painful to watch the deterioration.
Anyone with a family history should keep exercising his brain as much as he can.