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This is the practical, unglamorous side of caregiving: wait lists, referrals, insurance chats, second opinions, and learning that you're allowed to ask for better. If you're just starting to build a care team for someone you love, this episode is the one we wish we'd had a year ago.

When our mom was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, we thought getting a neurologist meant we were set. We were wrong. In this episode, we walk through everything it actually took to build a care team that works with her to support her health, mind, and wellbeing- including how to get second opinions and keep pushing for new medical conversations, especially after our first experience with her original neurologist post-diagnosis, who told her: "there's no cure, good luck."

While we understand the diagnosis we face, and we're not expecting an immediate cure, having a medical team that knows we want to spend as much time with our mom as possible, and slow the cognitive decline as much as possible, was important to us. This includes pursuing other kinds of support like working with a functional medicine doctor to support her entire body system, therapy, and memory therapy too.

We get into the parts nobody prepared us for: the insurance fight when a $900 memory therapy bill got denied after a coverage switch, the referral chase between PCP and neurologist, and why we ultimately went looking for a therapist who specializes in Alzheimer's and dementia specifically- because grief this specific needs someone who's seen it before. We also talk about why functional medicine can put you at odds with a traditional neurologist, and where our dad's skepticism has created real friction in how we approach mom's care.

In this episode: early onset Alzheimer's | building a care team | functional medicine | neurologist second opinion | memory therapy | Alzheimer's insurance denial | Alzheimer's therapist | caregiver advocacy | PCP referral | geriatric care manager

Support the show

Thanks for walking this journey with us. Conversations Through Alzheimer's is hosted by sisters Amber and Felicia, and new episodes drop every Monday through September 2026.

If this show has resonated with you, share it with someone who needs it and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow along on our socials:

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@conversationsthroughalz
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsThroughALZ

Support the Alzheimer's Association by joining our Walk to End Alzheimer's team or donating: https://act.alz.org/site/TR/Walk2026/NY-WesternNewYork?pg=team&team_id=1057467&fr_id=19818

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This is a real-time update from April 2026, nearly a year into our mom Rosemary's early onset Alzheimer's journey. And honestly, the weeks leading up to April 2026 is a lot!

We share some of the specific moments that stopped us in our tracks lately. A medical video she watched with us, cried through, and had absolutely no memory of two weeks later. A store name she's known her whole life that suddenly meant nothing to her. Getting turned around in a parking lot and feeling too ashamed to ask for help. These aren't dramatic moments on their own, but together they're painting a picture that's hard to ignore.

We also get into what it's like to watch someone close to her still not fully grasp where she is right now, the gap between what we're seeing from across the country and what's being acknowledged on the ground, and why that gap is starting to feel urgent in a way it didn't before.

And we talk about driving. Not because we're there yet, but because we're starting to have the conversation with ourselves about when we will be, and what losing that independence is going to mean for her.

No framework. No tidy takeaway. Just an honest conversation about where we actually were at.

In this episode: Alzheimer's progression | early onset Alzheimer's | memory loss | remote caregiving | caregiver support | family dynamics | Alzheimer's caregiver update

Support the show

Thanks for walking this journey with us. Conversations Through Alzheimer's is hosted by sisters Amber and Felicia, and new episodes drop every Monday through September 2026.

If this show has resonated with you, share it with someone who needs it and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow along on our socials:

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@conversationsthroughalz
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsThroughALZ

Support the Alzheimer's Association by joining our Walk to End Alzheimer's team or donating: https://act.alz.org/site/TR/Walk2026/NY-WesternNewYork?pg=team&team_id=1057467&fr_id=19818

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When someone you love is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, it hits fast. In this episode, two sisters document the real mechanics of building and managing a care team for their mom, who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in June 2025.

This isn’t a highlight reel. It’s an honest walkthrough of what they’ve tried, what’s broken, and what’s actually working, including the Skylight calendar system that gave their whole care team shared visibility, the medication tracking spreadsheet that evolved over months into something they couldn’t live without, and how they use Zoom’s remote screen access to troubleshoot tech from hundreds of miles away.

They also break down how they divide responsibilities across four people using a RACI framework borrowed from the corporate world to clarify who’s responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. Because when you have multiple people caring for one person, communication gaps aren’t just inconvenient. They have real consequences.

And if you’re doing this alone? These tools still apply. A shared calendar, a medication spreadsheet, a Zoom session to help from afar, these aren’t team luxuries. They’re systems any caregiver can build, and they scale up the moment someone in your life says “I want to help.” This episode will give you something real to hand them.

If you’re an adult child managing a parent’s Alzheimer’s care, a spouse trying to build support around someone you love, or a solo caregiver figuring out how to hold it all together, this is a starting point. Not a perfect roadmap, but a real one.

In this episode: remote Alzheimer’s caregiving | building a care team | dividing caregiver roles | Skylight calendar for dementia | medication management | RACI for family caregiving | Zoom for remote caregiving | early onset Alzheimer’s | solo Alzheimer’s caregiver

Support the show

Thanks for walking this journey with us. Conversations Through Alzheimer's is hosted by sisters Amber and Felicia, and new episodes drop every Monday through September 2026.

If this show has resonated with you, share it with someone who needs it and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow along on our socials:

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@conversationsthroughalz
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsThroughALZ

Support the Alzheimer's Association by joining our Walk to End Alzheimer's team or donating: https://act.alz.org/site/TR/Walk2026/NY-WesternNewYork?pg=team&team_id=1057467&fr_id=19818