Introducing myself and my dad

[Guest guest]

My father beat prostate cancer by 2001, after chemo and radiation –no surgery.

Shortly thereafter, however, he did have surgery for a hernia. Since then,

ever-so-gradually, his short term memory experienced glitches that my mom

noticed, more and more.

Fast forward to 2008, when my parents moved to within 20 miles of my husband and

me. That move definitely caused an acute elevation of confusion and

forgetfulness for Dad. Soon after that, settled into their home, he became

unable to operate his computer tasks (simple email and news reading).

Now, he suffers from extreme sundowners, with irrationally inaccurate tales of

what he sees, knows, believes or fears throughout the evening. Most stories

include not recognizing their home, their financial state, and even my mom. He

often personalizes TV story settings, thinking he works for crime investigation,

travels around the world, hosts presidents in their home…the list goes on and

on. Yet, other than needing much more sleep than ever, his day time hours are

normal (though still forgetful) and sometimes he will sit and stare with no

visible connection to anything around him.

His hands are in constant tremor, more than ever. His walk is a very slow

shuffle that is as slow as my mother's (with a cane for severe arthritis) and

even slower.

Having had their fill of doctors through the cancer, neither is anxious to bring

a physician into their daily lives again. Dad has had a check-up, MRI, vascular

and heart checks. None showed evidence of obvious culprits. Since those tests,

though symptoms have increased dramatically, even my mother is very resistant to

a doctor visit or medication. (Dad had poor reactions and responses to

anti-anxiety meds during the cancer.)

I write all of this to introduce myself here and get your experienced input as

to whether or not this sounds like LBD or some other dementia. –Mostly I'd just

be curious as to some of your thoughts in viewing these descriptions. His vivid

acting out of dreams and even wakeful hallucinations, plus the tremors, have

made me suspect LBD, though without professional observation and testing, I

doubt I'll ever know till we are way on down the line… Thanks for

listening/reading. -Ida