Re: Old photos and realization dawned

March 7, 2011

There is so much to ponder and ponder with this disease. I often try to go back

in time and look for clues. I, too, justified some problems with the " that's

ageing " reason. I think if you are not actually living with the LO, you can be

fooled for quite some time with the symptoms. While my mother was battling

cancer, I would visit my parents often. Mom would always tell me she was

worried about my dad. I didn't see it so much. I saw excessive sleeping and a

little bit of confusion upon waking but really just thought he was getting old

and all was normal. I assured her he was fine. After she died, and I convinced

him to move in with us, it became very obvious that he was not fine. After

three bizarre behavior episodes, multiple falls (one ending in loss of site in

one eye) and passage of one year's time, we finally got the Lewy Body with

parkinsonism diagnosis. Then I started to remember some of the other things

that my mother told me about his behavior. I will forever want to kick myself

for not believing her and trying to get her more help to deal with it. This

disease is so crazy. Lately, whenever I find myself trying to make sense of it,

I stop myself because I am coming to realize that we just don't know enough to

make sense of it. It's so different in everyone. It's nonsensical.

Toni, daughter of , age 83

>

> Hi, all. To refresh on earlier postings, my mother was diagnosed early in

2006 with Mild Cognitive Impairment...later with Lewy Body Dementia with

Parkinsonism. By 2008, Mom was rapidly heading toward total care and has been

at that point since probably mid-2008. She still has lucid moments when she

will know who I am and, briefly, have complete, understandable sentences. The

time between such moments has grown considerably to the point of them now being

rare.

>

> This morning as I was going through older photographs from 2000-2001, I was

struck by how uninvolved Mom appeared at that time. Mom had undergone surgery

to successfully remove a benign brain tumor in 1996 and we had seen a number of

changes afterward. However, because the changes evolved slowly, we didn't make

any connections, chalking them up to aging. I've always wondered if there is a

connection between the surgery (which, admittedly, saved her life) and the

development of LBD and Parkinsonism features. These older photos pull me back

to that question. I can look at them now with a different eye. What I didn't

notice then seems so obvious to me today.

>

> So, I wonder if I'm insinuating anything into my observations or if this is

something that others might notice when looking back in time. We become such

strong observers while we care for our loved ones that it's sometimes hard to

differentiate between insinuation, or interpretation, and actuality.

>

> Just my thoughts for this day. There's a certain sadness that is lingering

after looking through the older photos...

>

> Best wishes,

> Lynn in Florida

>

March 7, 2011

Hi Lynn,

Many of us here have found that symptoms of PDD/LBD started in our LOs shortly

after surgery. My mom was included in that scenario. She hallucinated as she

came out of the anaesthetic and I would say that within a week after undergoing

a shoulder replacement at age 79 tremoring started in her good arm. That led to

her early diagnosis of Parkinsons. Then at 82 she had to undergo a hysterectomy

and radiation which led to cognitive decline along with worsening Parkinson

symptoms. To this day I wonder if she hadn't needed the anaesthetics if her

later years would have been less confined with PDD/LBD. LBD friendly

anaesthetics can be found in the Links.