culturally, and involving a variety of comorbidities. This complicates the ability to find an accurate diagnosis and sometimes our loved one will not tolerate further testing. Then we do not and should not force this and frequently end up with the goal of comfort care and symptom management since we are unable to specifically diagnose our person. When we compare and contrast Alzheimer's vs Parkinson's we can immediately see that Alzheimer's frequently starts with cognitive decline and Parkinson's frequently starts with physical challenges. This is interesting but confirms that with different areas of the brain declining, symptoms can be very different. With Alzheimer's we see challenges with the hippocampus which leads to short term memory loss and is diagnosed with the presence of plaques and tangles. Parkinson's problems appear to stem from the substantia nigra which is a part of the basal ganglia that has a huge role in movement in our bodies. When dopamine is not produced a long list of problems can occur, one of which is trouble with movement and muscle tone. This is a very simple explanation to a couple of very complex diseases, but will suffice for our short lesson today. Ultimately our job is to love these individuals along on their journey with brain failure and make sure we care for ourselves too along the way! I know you GOT THIS and we are here to help.