Importance of early diagnosis

Mom has not had an official diagnosis yet.  I was talking with one of my assisted living  family members the other day about how frustrating it is when the doctor spends 5 to 10 minutes, doesn't see anything and assumes you are over reacting. Seriously, is this something anyone really thinks I want to be right about?  Of course my dad doesn't want to see it.  He watched my grandmother decline to where she didn't recognize my mother and how hard that was for my mother.  I have one brother that agrees with me, one that does not.  My husband sees it, my good friend said she saw warning signs two years ago at my youngest son's graduation.  But when we are playing dominoes, a game you played with my 20 something children every night during the 8 summers they spent with you and we have to explain where the dime line is every time it is your turn-there is a problem.  You know how many turns there are in a game of double 9's?

Every day I am confronted with people who waited too long to admit there was a problem.  There's the long distance truck driver trying to find care arrangements in a hurry so he can return to his job.  The sister trying to figure out how to pay for care because her brother made some poor financial decisions because of the disease.  The family that now has to go through the court process of guardianship so they can prevent poor decisions.  And every day I have someone call me who knows their loved one needs care but assumed someone else would pay for it.  My favorite was the person who came out and said to me "he doesn't want to use his money to pay for care".  Oh how I wanted to say "Well who's money would he like to use?"  Medicaid is getting very strict on individuals needing to have skilled nursing needs in order to qualify.  So many people out there stuck in very bad situations because they were in denial, didn't want to offend their loved one, on and on.  So no, I don't want to be right about the diagnosis, but I don't want to end up making decisions in a crisis like so many people I talk to every day.