My husband’s family doctor prescribed Arisept before he had seen the neurologist. He doesn’t want to take them either so I give it to him with his vitamins. He seems to be ok with taking them. Maybe because I take my vitamins at the same time

If you live in the US, you can use a GoodRX card which is free. Our meds are quite a bit cheaper at some of the stores that accept them even a lot cheaper than the insurance copay. You can check out their website and see the pricing.

My mom kept refusing to take her meds. They all told me the same thing that my mom had the right to refuse to take her medication. So I would crush up her meds and put it in her food. Such as pudding, cottage cheese etc.

After a few years on Aricept, we saw no positive changes in husband’s AD and it kept progressing. Saw a new neurologist who changed his Aricept to Memantine(sp.?). He still will not fully comply, so I don’t know if it is a better medication than Aricept. Husband takes the morning dose but we have trouble getting a nighttime dose in him—maybe because mornings he takes vitamins with it. I’m going to try splitting vitamins between mornings and nights. He always took his vitamins before his AD diagnosis, but he has always hated taking any prescription medications! Also, he is still in denial he even has AD! He is in the moderate stage now. He has seen multiple specialists and had a battery of tests. All say its AD. This is such a tough disease to handle—for both of us!

My husband has been on memantine and rivistigmine since the beginning (almost 8 years). I asked his neurologist if we can stop the meds because I see his AZD progressing daily. He asked if I want to take the chance to see how quickly it will progress if I stop. Of course, I said no, but now I am rethinking that decision. He is getting worse in every way, except he is still able to go to the bathroom on his own (a few exceptions have happened at night) and he has yet to become agressive (except when he is having a specific delusion). I am noticing his motor skills are off a bit and I need to slow down when we walk together. He is having some trouble getting up from a sitting position, but can navigate on his own. So I really don't think the meds are slowing anything down. I am still waiting for approval from the state to get a card to purchase medical marijuana. I will give him that only when he is having an exceptionally bad delusion or trouble sleeping. I think the decision on taking or not taking meds is up to the caregiver since they are the ones seeing the changes on a daily basis.