I'm a long-term-care nurse. Navigating my dad's dementia care and the $7,700 monthly cost still overwhelmed me.

Tasha Crouse has cared for her father with dementia for years.

Tasha Crouse Tasha Crouse, 55, manages her father's dementia care from Wisconsin and Colorado.

Crouse's father, 84, diagnosed with advanced dementia, resides in a costly memory care facility.

Facing her father's decline, Crouse is planning her own long-term care and financial arrangements.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tasha Crouse, 55, who is caring for her father with dementia.

She lives in Wisconsin but frequently visits her father, who is in a memory care facility in Colorado.

Crouse became his conservator as his condition worsened.

Crouse's lawyer and fiduciary confirmed details of the conservatorship agreement .

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Both of my parents are from the UK.

They got married and moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I grew up.

My mom taught French, and my dad was a trust officer administering estates at a bank.

After college, I taught for two years before getting married and having kids.

I stayed home with them, and when they got to high school, I went back to nursing school and became a practicing nurse in long-term care.