Our Families Journey Caring for a Mom with FTLD-MND

It is important to know as you read this journal that this was Cathy's life post diagnosis...

To know Cathy Truly you must know that she was: a Wife, Mother of 3 boys, Grandmother of 9, Sister, Niece, Aunt, Daughter, and Friend.

Our families journey began with Cathy's diagnosis the week of Thanksgiving 2006, Cathy was 52. Her original diagnosis was Pick's Disease/FTD. Looking back her symptoms most likely began 3-5 years before diagnosis. Most of the Doctors have told us that from onset of symptoms to death... the average timeframe is 4-7 years. (sigh) In the end her brain autopsy showed Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration with Motor Neuron Disease FTLD-MND. (Basically... Frontal Lobe Dementia with Lou Gehrig's Disease)

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Note from Barb

Much better day today! I went to see Cathy before work this morning and she was smiles and cleaning up her breakfast tray and they said her night was good. Then I went after work and she led me to the main dinning room for a movie residents were watching, we watched it for about a half hour and she was all smiles, lots of music in it. They said Gayle and hospice had been there before me and of course Brad had been there in the morning. Someone from hospice said to me" Cathy sure is popular around here". I said "She sure is, she's the girl!" Have a safe trip over tomorrow night. Love, Barb
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2 comments:

DeeDee said...

It's really nice that Cathy finds the movies to be a good activity. I notice she likes Princess movies, too. I told my sister about that, and we are going to see if my Mom will enjoy watching that. As of today Mom will only watch the show Jeopardy, every day at 6:30. She never misses it!

Cathy sounds better in this post. It surprises me how fast it sometimes seems to go at times. Hugs to you, I know it must be so hard and you can tell in your posts the pain you are feeling for her.

January 18, 2009 7:48 AM
Anonymous said...

Hey Beth, It's Alicia, just wondering how Cathy's weekend was. Thinking of you and praying for the best,
Your Friday, Alicia

January 19, 2009 7:12 AM

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