Journey through Alzheimer's

Bob and I have been on many journeys.  We have traveled the world and have been to every continent except Antarctica, where I have no desire to go!  But now we are on another journey, a journey we had no idea we were going to take.  We made no reservations, and would have declined, had we been given the choice.
It began with a trip to Australia and New Zealand we were taking for our anniversary and Bob's birthday.  We left 3 days after 9/11/2001, and weren't sure planes would even be flying by then, but
with luck they were.  I noticed that Bob was having trouble remembering things the guide told us, like what time we were going to have dinner, but chalked it up to 16 hours of jet lag.  Things were fine when we got home, but then the same thing happened 3 years later on a safari to Africa.  Again I
chalked it up to jet lag and we were both having trouble hearing with our ears stopped up from so many plane rides, a lot of them in small bush planes.
I retired from nursing a year later in 2005 but Bob wanted to continue working.  He had always worked in the daytime and I had always worked at night so we got along fine!  But I started noticing more things now that we were together more.  My father had Alzheimer's and things started happened that were eerily similar, that we hadn't picked up on right away with my father.  I mentioned it to our
(former) primary care doctor and he just laughed and said "Oh, women don't ever think that men listen to them".  I told him, that no, it was more than that, I had had Bob's hearing checked and the audiologist said everything was fine, he was just tuning out what he didn't want to hear.  Then we met some friends we hadn't seen for years at a funeral and Bob talked to them like they were his boss some years back.  The lady called the next day and asked if I knew that Bob didn't know who they were.  I had just heard a little of their conversation but I had picked it up as well.  I confronted Bob with that information and he said, yes, he remembered after he got home, and wondered why the wife didn't belong with that husband.  I asked him to go see a neurologist, but he refused.  He said there was nothing wrong with him, and he was usually covering things up very well.
Bob retired in 2006, at my urging.  I didn't want his wonderful career to end by them having to ask him to leave.  I had wondered if his long time secretary in the hospital administration had picked anything up, but was hesitant to ask her.  He went to one last hospital function which I didn't attend, and on the way home he made a left turn right in front of an oncoming car, and totaled his car.
The people in the other car were injured.
I told him that was it.  He was going to a neurologist.  The neurologist (former) did minimal testing and told me he didn't think there was an elephant in the room and that lightening wouldn't strike twice (referring to my dad also having it).  But he did say that one of the first signs of dementia is losing the ability to judge distances, such as making a left hand turn with not enough time to do it.
Nurses have a wonderful networking system.  So I started asking my nurse friends about other neurologists in the area, and found the doctor that we have been with since 2009.  I was more than
happy with his testing, and he is the most kind, compassionate man I know.  He started Bob on Aricept which helped for a few years.
We are much further along in the journey now.  I will end for this time, and continue on later before
we both become glassy eyed!  It is a long road, but we live one day at a time.