Diagnosis of Alzheimer's

Mom and Dad went to see the neurologist in March. It was around my birthday. I was sick and had to stay at home. I had planned to go with them to the neurologist. My profession involves working with people who have had strokes. My dad has had 2 strokes that left him with no "physical symptoms", but with lessening cognitive function as time progresses. Our family referred Daddy to a neurologist.
On the day that Daddy went my mom said that the neurologist asked my dad some simple questions. He wanted to know if Daddy knew the date. He did not. However, he has compensated for this by looking at the date on the newspaper every day. That's how he knows the day of the week and the month. Now he can't remember that information all day so he might ask me during the day what the date is. You see my dad still has the cognitive ability to sometimes compensate for the things that he does not remember. However, I don't know how long he will be able to do that. THat's Alzheimer's.
THe Dr. asked him to start with the number 100 and subtract 7 then give the neurologist the total. He was to keep subtracting 7 every time he came up with a total. Daddy couldn't do that. Well you know, I know many folks with Master's degrees these days who can't do this simple task before they were not taught to do math "in your head" as students from the 60's and 70's were. WHen I was in elementary and high school we were taught math facts and we had to be able to think without paper, pencil, and calculator-of course no one had a hand held calculator in those days. The day of the dinosaurs. Dad received his pharmacy degree in the 1950's. He knew how to subtract 7 from 100 to get 93, 7 from 93 to get 86, etc. But he forgot. That's Alzheimer's.
THe Dr. asked daddy to draw the face of a clock and put the hands at the correct position for 3:00. Daddy couldn't do this. He has worn a "regular" watch for all of his adult life. Being on time is very important to him-but he couldn't complete this task.
That's Alzheimer's.
Other questions were asked, but you get my drift. Skills learned at an early age; skills forgotten later. Could be Alzheimer's.
My mom called me after the appointment with the neurologist. SHe said that the doctor had diagnosed Alzheimer's in the early stages. A feared diagnosis and a sense of relief. THis is what we're dealing with. How are we going to handle it? How are we going to live with it? It has been reported that those with Alzheimer's and their families aren't usually too upset when given the diagnosis. They already know that something is terribly wrong. They are glad to have a label for it so that they can begin to deal with it. I have my own plan about how to deal with it as I work with my dad.