I have some experience with some of your questions, but not all. My mother was already hooked up with direct deposit, so I know nothing about that. When my mother was first diagnosed with alzheimers, the first thing we did, while she was still mostly lucid, was set me up with power of attorney. If you haven't done that yet, you need to do so. Well, I'll qualify that, since I don't know what's wrong with your mother. She may be perfectly capable of making decisions. If you are her primary caregiver, I'd definately look into that, though, because you'll need it to get things done for her, in many cases. As for the hearing aid, we went through a hearing specialist that was hooked up with an ENT doctor. They sold us on Phonics (If I remember it right.) I don't know about the other aids out there, but this one was way too technical for my mother, even without her having alzheimers. It was supposed to block out clutter noise. This aid was small, and fit inside her ear. I don't remember why, but for my mother, the kind that loops over her ear wasn't going to work for her. I wish it did, because those other ones were very easy to loose. As for drug interactions, definately do your own research, including talking to the doctor and the pharmacist. When I asked Mom's pharmacist about the effect of grapefruit on Mom's medication, he was surprised by the question. I had learned through listening to a health related radio show about the effect grapefruit juice has on some medications. I guess no one had ever asked about that, even though that's one of those food items, mainly grapefuit juice, that has a strong impact on some medications. Anyway, the pharmacist looked it up, and luckily found that none of her meds interacted with grapefruit or the juice. I don't know if the pharmacy would have provided info along that line if her meds did react to such things, but judging from pharmacist's reaction, I doubt it. There is a caregivers forum over on That Home Site part of Gardenweb. I didn't find it until after my mom died, unfortunately, but I did get a lot of help from the Alzheimers Association. Whatever is wrong with your mother, there may be support groups and/or associations that will have information to help you out. Good luck, and God bless you. I still miss my mother. I even miss taking care of her.

A very big Thank You for the tips on record keeping. I will try to start one tonight. 'Till now I've just noted Dr appts. on calendar. I wish she did eat just $20-25 a week. She eats everything in sight. I have to make DH's next day lunch before we eat dinner or there's nothing left. I've really gone through my freezer just trying to make it to the end of the month for my retirement check to get deposited so I can buy more groceries!! Once we catch up on all of the behind bills and pay off S-son's cell phone,sattelite, etc., (He put everything in her name) we will have a little extra to spend on her from her check. She was so spastic about the warrant for the heating oil bill that we took $$ out of our savings and paid it before court day. That will be the first thing to come out of her retirement check. S-son called yesterday to say he had finally gotten a job. I'm doing the happy dance now! Hope it lasts. This has really taken the wind out of his sails because his Dad made it plain that there was NO MONEY. He's had to figure out how to come up with his own party $$s. She is talking about selling her house to get out from under the payments. 2 possible issues with that. 1) With the economy I'm not sure we can get enough to pay off the loans. 2) That house was built by her Daddy and NOTHING has EVER been thrown away! I'm dreading trying to clean out the house and multiple sheds/buildings. All and all, things are settling down a little. Stress level has dropped a notch. All of you have been my life raft. Can't thank you enough. Oh yeah, DH's Mom (Aunt's sister) has called and gone by the house repeatedly to try and get anything she can sell out of it. She knew everything that was going on and has already been there and carted off everything of value she could fit into her car before we found out how bad off Aunt was. (Such a sleeze bag.) In case you are wondering where we have been- DH was in a horrific accident on the job early last year and almost died. We spent many days in intensive care, had a long hospital stay as well as return trips for emergencies that kept popping up, and a very long recovery at home where he was practically bed ridden wnth me giving him daily very strong antibiotic IVs thru Pic line straight to his heart. When we finally got him on his feet and able to go check on Aunt- all of the family vultures had done an awful lot of damage financially as well as helping themselves to antique quilts, dishes, etc. S-son doing the most damage in the $$ dept. Let's just say I'm so grateful to God that I had the upbringing that I had. Poor DH is a Saint to have turned out as well as he did to have come from that family. Thanks for letting me vent here. It soooo helps my stress level to get it out. Betty

I totally agree with the above posters. Don't like their politics...they sold us seniors out for the Health care Bill. I didn't renew because it served no purpose to us. We also have AAA and get better benefits using it. I don't share their politcal viewpoint and that was probably the main thing that caused me not to sign up again. Just don't care to support some of their lobbying efforts. I cut up my cards and sent them back..and when I get junk I send that back in envelopes that have return postage. I haven't miss their membership.....You don't need them.

Never have and never will. They're the postal equivalent of telemarketers IMO. The "deals" they offer aren't good deals from what I've seen. Just because something says "discounted" doesn't mean it has. I can always get the same hotel rate as AARP simply by asking for a discount. Often I do better asking for a corporate rate. Like many unions, they've become what they used to fight. No thanks.