URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — During the day, Katie Dominguez treats her own patients as a surgeon at Carle. But after work, her patients are her own family members.

She and her husband take care of Linda Dimmick, her mom, and Diana Niswander, her aunt, as they both experience memory loss. Things started to take a turn about 10 years ago, when she said Niswander began to struggle and get confused with daily tasks.

“They went through a whole long variety of testing and doctors and things before they came up with the Alzheimer’s diagnosis,” Dominguez explained.

A few years later, her mom started going down a similar path.

“There was once she drove into a ditch because she got confused about what she was doing,” she described.

At one point, Dominguez and her husband started caring for the two family members in their Urbana home. But that came with challenges.

“Some days she was up all night. She was not safe by herself at all. She would leave. She would destroy the house,” Dominguez said.

They knew something had to change, and now Niswander and Dimmick are living in Champaign County memory care facilities. Besides the health challenges, the family is also working through legal headaches.

“There was no plan in place in terms of where she’d go, power of attorney, or anything else,” Dominguez said.

Now, that’s the biggest piece of advice she wants to pass along to others — prepare for the ‘what ifs.’

In the meantime, she’s enjoying as much family time as she gets, even though it looks a bit different now than it did 10 years ago.

“Cherish the good times while you have them because you never know when things are going to change,” Dominguez added.