As caretaker of my Alzheimer's spouse, I worry that something could happen to me at any time and then who will care for him? Suggestions?

Why is moving to Assisted Living 'cruel'???? Why not sell the house and both of you move into IL, like Again suggested, and then if/when either of you need to, you can segue into Assisted Living. Truth is, these places are more like hotels than anything else, and any senior fortunate enough to be able to afford IL/AL should take advantage of the luxurious lifestyle. Help is only offered on an as needed basis, and we ALL need help with cleaning/cooking and things like that, let's face it.

My cousins who are in their early 70s did just that; they bought into a senior community and are living in a brand new 2 bedroom apartment in Independent Living right now. They have no children or family to care for them when they need help, so they did the smart thing and took care of their senior years properly. When they need more care, they can move into AL or even Skilled Nursing on the same grounds; there's even Cancer Care, Memory Care, etc available to them on the same property.

Good luck!

Maybe you should move into AL together? A place I know has independent apartments and then when that is no longer viable, you slide over to being in AL and paying for those additional services.

You say your husband has no real problems, yet he is diagnosed with AZ. He obviously has some issues if he already has a diagnosis. I guess it's not unusual that people are in denial about have Alzheimer's. Why is that a big problem? If you are trying to convince him of this truth, I would move along and not worry about that. Does it really matter if he admits and understands that he has it? Having it may keep him from understanding and accepting it. The brain isn't working quite right anymore.

Sorry that you are also having health problems. To get your house ready to sell, you are probably going to have to hire someone to help you do the work and/or help with your husband so that you can get the work done yourself.

Good luck.

I had a Special Needs Trust set up so if something happened to me he would have been cared for. He would have to have been placed in Memory Care.
I did have caregivers some in daily so he was used to others, not just me caring for him.
I had my sister as a back up if I needed more long term help.

If he still has friends that would come and sit and talk to him you could call on them to to come sit with him if you had to go to the store or a Dr. appointment.

When my husband was on Hospice one of the advantages of Hospice is a % of the care cost has to be provided by Volunteers so there were a few occasions I had a Volunteer sit with him.
Another advantage of Hospice is Medicare will cover the cost of Respite once a year so if I had needed more long term care I could have used that.

But you are right this is a thought that almost every caregiver has at some point.
You need to have a plan worked out.
Hiring caregivers is one of the things you should start doing so he gets used to others in the house and helping him.