Dementia

Caring for someone with dementia is a journey of love, loss, and survival. It is also a journey most people don't understand-until they live it.
In Dementia: You Don't Know Unless You Know, author Lillian Amber Rachel Getchell shares the story of her father's decline and the unfiltered truth of what it means to care for someone through every stage of the disease. Drawing on her CNA training, her background in health and fitness, and her raw lived experience, she offers a book that is both memoir and manual: deeply human stories paired with practical tools.
Inside you'll find:

• Unflinching honesty about the realities of dementia care-blood thinners, midnight falls, infections, hallucinations, and the moments no one talks about.
• Clinical truths explained simply: swallowing difficulties, aspiration risks, UTIs, sundowning, delusions, hospice, and end-of-life changes.
• Survival strategies for caregivers, including a fridge-ready daily checklist, chapter-end "Key Reminders," a Quick Reference Guide, and Master Caregiver Reminders you can pin on the wall.
• Ways to preserve connection and joy-through music, touch, rituals, and small wins that matter more than outsiders will ever know.
• Guidance for transitions-when to seek Power of Attorney, when to consider facility care, when to call hospice.
• Validation for the caregiver's heart. Anticipatory grief, family conflict, shrinking friendships, hyper-vigilance, and guilt are not signs of failure. They are signs of love pressed against impossible circumstances.