LBD and grandkids, etc.

[Guest guest]

At 05:13 7/12/01, you wrote:

> When someone is diagnosed with LBD, is there a life span associated with

it?

However, I'd rather know than go another night

> " Will my dad be able to walk me down the aisle when I get

> married? Will he be around to enjoy his grandkids?

First let me say thanks for working up the nerve to post this questions; it

is on all our minds and comes up in the posts from time to time. The

consensus seems to vary between " it does not have a major effect on life

expectation " and " the average time from diagnosis to death is 7 years or

more. " I expect the first answer is based on the assumption that many

patients are not diagnosed until they are elderly so their " natural "

survival rate might be about 7 years. You do not say how old your father

nor you are (maybe you did in an earlier post), so I don't know which

answer will work best for you.

My father-in-las was diagnosed when he was almost 73, a little over two

years ago. Since then he has gone from losing-his-keys to getting lost in

his own building. He has a new girlfriend at his assisted living center

but he can't remember her name.

But on the positive side a lot of love has passed between us, including my

young kids (2 and 7) in the past two years. My 2-year-old daughter has

been the greatest light in his life. Of course it does not matter to a

2-year-old that Grandpa can't hold up his end of an adult conversation. He

makes funny faces at her and she squeals with delight and always gives him

big hugs. He is the envy of the assisted-living center because of her. So

if you have kids I encourage you to let them to get to know their grandad

even if the grownups in his life don't have much to say to him anymore.

The walking-down-the-aisle may be a bit harder, partly because of physical

limitations that may arise. Pop has a Parkinsons-like shuffle and is

pretty unsteady on his feet. He's very slow. But more than that at this

point he would be very confused by the crowd and not quite sure why he was

there. But as you will note from reading the list every LBD patient has

good days and bad days. We will keep our fingers crossed that there will

be plenty of good days in your future!

cb