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For the past year and a half I’ve noticed obvious signs of age relevant cognitive decline. As his younger wife I manage all the logistics of our life and he has voluntarily given up driving. He has difficulty expressing himself and his communication via text, phone, and email sometimes is nonsensical. I am capable of caring for him and we are doing fine. Is there a benefit at this point of going through a specialist, getting testing done etc when at 88 it isn’t any big surprise.

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As PoA for my 95-yr old Mom, I put a note to her primary doc in the medical portal making an appointment for her free Medicare annual wellness exam. I identified who I am and that she was in dire need of my PoA to be activated, and that the point of this exam was really for the doc to cognitively assess her AND that if the doc agreed with my opinion that she was having impairment that I needed the diagnosis in letter form signed by her on clinic letterhead. She did this for me and I've used that letter many times, especially when it came to activating my PoA for her annuity investments. On one of my Mom's annuities, it did not matter to them that my PoA was durable, they wanted the diagnosis letter anyway. So, if you are your husband's PoA, or someone else is -- they should have a formal diagnosis.
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In my case I needed a diagnosis for my mom to give me the power to do things against her will such as place her in memory care. If you have non-springing POA you may not need an official diagnosis.
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They will make him draw a clock at different times. This is about all my Mom got out of the neurologist. We never got anything more out of the yearly neurologist visit.

There are meds that might or might not help that you can get through the PCP. I think in studies the meds are shown in early alzheimers/dementia to slow decline down by 5%.
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IslanderP May 6, 2025
Thanks for your response. His PCP did the clock thing and asked a couple questions and that was it. I’m ok with just knowing he is in decline. That’s life.
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