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He has no other symptoms since the original test. Doc won't do MRI or blood test to validate. We can not move to independent living due to MoCA.Condition seems old age onlyWhat have others experienced?

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Take hubby to a neurologist for a more complete evaluation. This will provide the proof either way of his cognitive status
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Reply to Daughterof1930
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Thirty months is a long time ago in terms of memory issues that husband may have! My parents and my husband have all had dementia. Thirty months before they showed definitive signs of dementia, they were fine. Two and a half years later (30 months), they clearly had dementia.

So here are a few questions about your daily routine with your husband, and the only reason I'm asking is that as a dementia patient's wife, I was able to prop him up and cover for him for a LOOOOONNNGG time. Thus his functioning could have been said to have been perfect if the only contact with him was as the yard man, the neighbors he chatted with, certain relatives, the dentist, etc. Of course his doctors knew about his dementia, but that was their job.

Can your husband perform tasks from start to finish, such as brushing his teeth? Or does he forget to rinse off the toothbrush and leave it on the counter? As his spouse it was easy for me to do it for my husband, but he wasn't completing the task as he normally had. Can he perform household chores without your help? DH would start to vacuum and walk off to do something else, leaving the vacuum running. Does he write checks properly? Pay any bills, or have you taken that over? Heat a meal for himself in the microwave? Go to the drugstore, get in the drive-up lane, and get his own meds? Use his phone? Use the TV remote? These abilities gradually disappeared with my husband, and no one knew but me.

If you go to independent living and six months later, your H is required to move into memory care, that's a huge bump in the road for him. Dementia patients in general don't respond well to changes in home or routine.

You might try to get the independent living facility to do their own assessment of your husband in your home. If you're a prospective tenant, they should want to do that anyway, even if there are only signs of "old age forgetfulness," which often morphs into dementia eventually, like within 30 months. But at least you'd have an independent opinion.

And as already posted, have his hearing checked. You both should be doing that annually.
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Reply to Fawnby
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How's hubby's hearing? A 2023 clinical article* states "Hearing impairment impacts performance on cognitive screening tests, resulting in over-estimation of cognitive impairment." The researchers developed a MoCA that uses written instead of spoken directions found it did make a difference for some patients.

When my mom took the MoCA on a Zoom appointment recently, I observed that she wasn't clearly hearing every instruction; although I wasn't supposed to say anything, I had to repeat some. And even I couldn't clearly hear one of the five words given to recall.

I'm not saying the whole test was wrong, but I don't want an assessment that makes things worse than they actually are because someone was talking too fast /low or can't properly enunciate. I'll certainly bring this up when she sees a neurologist (again on Zoom - there IS a downside to virtual visits...).

Get a second opinion. Get imaging.
I wish you both clarity and peace to work with this challenging chapter of your lives.
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* Development and validation of the Montreal cognitive assessment for people with hearing impairment (MoCA-H). Dawes P, Yeung W, Holland F, et al. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. February 2023. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.18241
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Reply to ravensdottir
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Independent living means just that. One of you needs help in some way and independent living does not offer that help. Dementia progresses to the point a person can't perform simple daily tasks. IMO, if husband was diagnoised with Dementia its time for Assisted Living and you can join him there. You will get the help you need to care for him. Please, don't think you can do this on your own. Women younger than you have found its not easy caring for someone with Dementia and have had to place husbands.

My BIL is having this problem with an Aunt and Uncle he is POA for. They live in a Senior Community in independent living housing. She is 97, he 95. He has declined since we saw them 18 months ago. She seems to be having a little problem with cognitivity. Time for Assisted Living but he won't go.
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Reply to JoAnn29
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Jayne44 Nov 23, 2025
I expected change however he performs the 6 daily living tasks just fine. I don't care for the dementia label when I believe it's simply old age memory issues.
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