Purpose and Diagnosis

After two years of wondering why my Mom was changing, we finally got our answer in March 2010. Her neuropsychiatrist gave us the results of her in-person tests, and said that she had a high IQ and strong vocabulary, but her problem solving and ability to learn from mistakes were impaired. This is what we feared after her CT scan showed frontal-lobe strinkage, and the test results lined up with the CT scan results. It was official. She had frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Since March, it has been a swift, and painful journey. My Mom was my best friend in the world, and now she is a shell of the person she once was. I miss her with my whole heart everyday. I want to document this journey of loss and love, so I can remember these moments, and do my best to carry on her legacy.

So....what changed in the two years leading up to her diagnosis?

• We used to talk twice a day on the phone, and she stopped calling.
• She stopped asking questions and caring about what was going on with me, friends, and family.
• She would have a few drinks and act like an idiot.
• She didn't sleep at night, and slept all day. Eating habits were terrible.
  
• She would say inappropriate things---it was almost like her social "filter" was gone, and she said anything on her mind.
• She would go off on tangents and not listen to what you were expressing or sharing with her. She would take the conversation where SHE wanted to....even if it was unnatural.

For over a year, we all thought this was depression....even as I describe it above, it still sounds a lot like depression. My Dad and I set down with her a month after my wedding (in November 2007) and had a little intervention. She committed to working out, taking care of herself, and spending more time with friends. She said she felt like she was in a funk that she could not get herself out of....and now we know she was right.

In March of 2009, I took matters into my own hands. I told her she would be staying with me and going to a mini boot camp. I made her wake up early, work out, take art classes, and eat healthy. She seemed to do pretty well, but everyday was a struggle for me. It wore me out. After a week, she went home and committed to keeping up with the walking, eating, and waking up. A week later, she was back to her same habits.

Around that time, we got a new doctor for my Mom. This is where the journey changes. I am so thankful we had a good doctor that started digging deeper into what was going on with her.

A few weeks after leaving my house, I was panicking that she was falling deeper into depression. I called the mental health facility here, and they suggested an appointment to determine if she was a fit for the depression outpatient program. She was, and they accepted her for the month-long program. Once she was finished, my Dad and I wondered if she should go inpatient, because she seemed the same...closed off, detached, and unaware of her impact on her family. The directors thought inpatient would be too much.....she was stable, and she wasn't hurting anyone. Sometimes I wonder if we would have known her diagnosis sooner if we would have moved forward with that....however, it probably would have completely freaked her out!

Even after the outpatient, she was the same for months. My Dad and I were at a loss of what to do next. Finally a breakthrough. My Mom started on a raw foods diet and took herself off of all of her drugs. Her doctor was shocked of course, but asked how she was feeling since being off of anti-depressants. She said she felt great! The doctor immediately noted that if she was depressed, she would not have been able to take herself off meds so easily. At that point she ordered a CT Scan and that led us to the diagnosis of FTD. Here we are nine months later, and things have definitely changed....