Hello
@Mary 85 and welcome to Talking Point.
Im afraid that it is impossible to give a timeline about what will happen when, and how long various stages will last. Every person with dementia will be different, although the general trend and various symptoms and changes will be common along the way.
If youve got a diagnosis, then there will already have been changes, but usually in the early stages the changes happen quite slowly and we as carers adapt to them, almost without thinking about it. As time goes on, though, the challenges will become harder to deal with and when this happens the best thing is to ask for advice here on how to cope with things as they occur.
You are doing the right thing with getting legal stuff like POA and will organised early, long before you will need them. They will become invaluable later on.
You might lso want to look into getting Attendance Allowance and once you have that you can get Council Tax disregard. Do get help from somewhere like Age UK or Citizens Advice in filling in the forms as it is very easy to downplay the person with dementias needs.
In the meantime, enjoy the good years and dont worry too much about the future
xx