A WOMAN feared her husband’s laziness and refusal to shower were signs he was not happy in his marriage.
But his strange symptoms led to a devastating diagnosis that meant he had to move into a house in his 40s.
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In May 2016, Kristin Holloway had barely been married to her husband Lee for a year when she noticed he was acting strangely.
Normally motivated and passionate about his work at a technology company he helped found, Lee began missing work or coming in very late.
He stopped showering and often wore the previous day’s dirty clothes – Lee always took pride in his appearance, so this was strange.
At this point, Kristin was six months pregnant with their child.
She thought Lee might still be recovering from an operation he had in February 2015 to correct a heart murmur.
Kristin also worried that he wasn’t happy being married to her.
She was “shocked and devastated” when Lee left her company in July 2016 – but her shock turned to concern as his behavior “declined dramatically”.
“He didn’t take off his pajamas and spent a lot of time on the couch. He watched the same movies and TV shows over and over again,” Kristin wrote in SELF Magazine.
“He demonstrated no motivation or desire to be productive. This was not normal behavior for anyone, least of all my brilliant and amazing husband.”
On maternity leave, she noticed that Lee had also developed obsessive tendencies, constantly counting the floorboards in the house and the trees outside.
While Kristin was in labor and delivered the baby via cesarean section due to complications, Lee slept the entire time.
Returning home with the baby, Kristin watched as Lee retreated further, developing more obsessive tendencies and refusing to shower.
“I woke up to a new version of my husband every day and I was terrified,” she wrote.
She said Lee wasn’t happy and needed more help with the baby, to which he only responded, “I’ll get better.”
Kristin booked a session with a marriage and family therapist, during which Lee appeared “deadpan” as she cried.
The mother made appointments with a general practitioner, cardiologist, neurologist, psychiatrist and neuropsychologist when the therapist signaled that Lee’s apathy was abnormal.
The neuropsychologist told the couple that Lee – now 35 years old – was having a profound psychological breakdown or the explanation was neurological.
But Kristin was scared by the psychiatrist’s assessment.
“The psychiatrist told me I would have a long and difficult road. I thought, “Well, what does that mean?” and he told me it was possible that Lee had a rare form of early-onset dementia,” she wrote.
“I didn’t even answer. I kept thinking: Dementia? That’s the disease that older people get when they start forgetting things. That’s not possible. That was the last thing I expected a doctor to say I had – I couldn’t believe it .”
A DEVASTATING DIAGNOSIS
Kristin’s fears were confirmed after an MRI showed that Lee had “brain atrophy that is inconsistent with [his] age”.
She said: “My whole world is over. Up until this point, I still held out hope that he had a serious but treatable psychological disorder.
“But I knew this was confirmation that he had a neurodegenerative disease. It was the worst-case scenario. I was heartbroken.”
Kristin quit her job, knowing her days with “a healthy version” of Lee were numbered.
After being evaluated by experts at the USFC Center for Memory and Aging in San Francisco, Lee was diagnosed with behavioral variant frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) at age 36.
Doctors warned that it would continue to decline from that point onwards and no treatment or medication could reverse it.
“I was in a lot of pain, but Lee wasn’t even registering the severity of the diagnosis,” Kristin wrote.
A DIFFICULT DECISION
The family discovered that his FTD was not genetic, but developed by chance.
Meanwhile, Kristin became a caretaker for Lee, who gradually became “unsustainable”.
Lee would suddenly run out and cross the street without worrying about traffic, leaving the front door oscillating open and often left the baby gate open as well.
Now 43, Lee has been in a home for two years receiving 24-hour care.
“He is still physically active but not verbal,” Kristin wrote.
“The juxtaposition of my son’s development and Lee’s progression has been a wild ride: When my son first learned to use the potty, Lee became incontinent. When my son started talking, Lee stopped.”
Kristin now visits her husband once a month.
She turned “pain into purpose” by joining the board of the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration to raise awareness of Lee’s condition, creating a bottom in his honor and an annual summit for FTD clinicians and researchers to share the latest progress in the field.
While there is no hope of recovery for Lee, she hopes others like him will have treatment options in the future. future.
What are the symptoms of early onset dementia?
YOUNG-onset dementia occurs when the brain-robbing disease affects people before the age of 65.
The symptoms of young-onset dementia are similar to those of late-onset dementia.
For young-onset frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in particular – which affects the front and side of the brain – symptoms include:
- Behavior changes: being inappropriate or a change in sense of humor.
- Emotion: a change in the way people express their feelings or understand other people’s feelings.
- Knowledge: people may not realize that they are experiencing changes in their behavior and emotions.
- Words: Having difficulty using the right word – often saying another word or using a vague term like “thing” instead of a specific object.
- Understanding: people may find it difficult to follow or participate in conversations.
- Concepts: for example, not understanding that money is used to buy things or that the remote control controls the television.
- Communicating with others: speech is slurred or halting and perhaps difficult to understand.
- Understanding: Finds it difficult to understand long, complex sentences; this can also affect reading and writing.
- Movement: stiff or slow body movements, weakness, and spasms or cramps
If you are concerned about your memory, thinking, or any of the above symptoms, speak to your doctor.
Dementia mainly affects people over 65, but frontotemporal dementia tends to start at younger ages.
Most cases are diagnosed in people between the ages of 45 and 65, although it can also affect younger or older people.
Sources: Alzheimer’s research in the UK, National Health Service
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
