Guest guest Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Hello , I'm sorry to hear the symptoms of your Loved One. He is following the same symptoms my husband displayed in the beginning. My husband was also a teacher and very athletic. I am not on this site as much as I once was and do not know if your Loved One is your dad, father-in-law, or husband. You say " he " throughout. It doesn't matter, he is your Loved One, and he sounds like it is PDD/LBD. There seems to be more and more with early onset LBD that I hear of. I'm so sorry he is only 59. My husband would not give up driving on his own, it was his only ticket to independence that he had left. Since your LO has trouble finding his car, he could be a hazard on the road if he is lost or can't determine where he is. And that could happen. Confusion sets in at times in the early stages. If he should be in an accident, your family would be liable if he should take an innocent life, for knowing his condition and allowing him to drive. I needed our car, so I couldn't sell it, but I tried everything to get my husband off the road. I hid the key and he had keys copied everytime he went out, so he knew where he hid the keys to drive. Other things he couldn't remember where he put them, but he knew where he hid keys to escape. I called the highway patrol to talk about the dangers of him on the road, they sent one to the house to speak to my husband that was young and did not want to offend my husband, so agreed with him about his desire for independence and my husband still believed he could drive. The neurologist had my husband's driver's license revoked and the notice came in the mail and that did not stop my husband from driving! Finally, I found out about the " Kill Switch " and had one installed in the car and I could remove the " Kill Switch " after I used the car and the car would not start for him when he tried to use it. My nightmare was over. By the way, my husband was in a fender bender accident, his fault. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but cars were a little damaged. My husband also one day hallucinated on the road at a busy intersection that he saw many people standing in the road, so he stopped the car to see what was happening. Some road construction workers saw him walking down the middle of the intersection and one got him back into his car and followed him home to tell me what happened. Your Loved One should not be driving in his condition. All that you explain is very similar to my husband. Jan Colello, East Bay, San Francisco Bay Area Husband, Jim, clinically dx w/PDD/LBD Oct. 2003 Deceased, January 2011 ________________________________ To: " LBDcaregivers " <LBDcaregivers > Sent: Sunday, December 4, 2011 3:27 PM Subject: Re: Opinions appreciated He walks well, though he does shuffle. He was very atheletic and still runs etc. I think this is why he's progressing more slowly than most. He used to be a calculus/physics teacher. We first noticed his problems when he lost the ability to do simple algebra. He also had an uncanny ability to determine his location, even in strange cities. Now he gets lost at the mall and can't find the car in parking lots etc. He has a lot of trouble with sequencing, for instance, he can't make a bed and often has trouble making a sandwich.( He'll put ketchup on his hotdog before putting the hotdog on the bun). Proportions have also proved to be a problem. He'll put 4X more food on his plate than he used to. (Huge piles of slaw etc). Short term memory is also an issue. He hallucinates, though that occurs mostly at night. He's on Seroquel for that and it has helped. His cognitive abilities also flucuate. Sometimes, he's very good (nothing like he used to be, but very functional) then other times he has trouble telling what time it is or putting on a shirt because he can't figure out which arm goes into which sleeve. He has a very slight tremor and it's not a resting tremor, only intention. He has the stooped shoulders and shuffling gate, but doesn't fall...yet. I've read a lot of books and articles about LBD and the more I read, the more convinced I am that he has it. His last psycological exam was a year ago, 9 months after his first one, and his scores weren't that much different which is why they don't think he has dementia at this time. BUT he exercises vigorously which has proven to slow down the progression of PD and dementia, so I think that is confusing the diagnosis. I'm just not sure if I should insist on seeing a specialist in dementia. I know the two diseases are treated with similar drugs, but I need to plan for long term care and LBD typically progresses more quickly. I don't want to be caught in the situation my mother found herself in. He's only 59. C ________________________________ To: " LBDcaregivers " <LBDcaregivers > Sent: Sunday, December 4, 2011 5:54 PM Subject: Re: Opinions appreciated Hi Can you please elaborate on your husbands condition now ? Is he still walking etc.? Thanks Judy Judy R. Strauss LMSW PhD Lead Faculty University of Phoenix Jersey City Campus 100 Town Square Place |Jersey City, NJ 07310 Cell- Email- Jrstr@... > I haven't commented much on this loop, but I follow the threads with interest. My husband was diagnosed with PD in 2009 at the age of 56. I never felt the diagnosis was accurate based on my father's battle with PD for the 20 years prior to that. My husband's problems started with cognitive impairment with the movement issues starting about a year and a half later. > > My husband has all the classic symptoms of LBD but when the doctors have given him the psycological tests he tests " normal " . Has anyone else had their LO test in the normal range early in their disease? My husband was a genius before this illness (IQ of about 160) My husband is currently seeing a movement order specialist as opposed to a demetia specialist. His doctor is at the Cleveland Clinic (so he's very good) but he is basing his decision on that test. I'm not sure what to do from here. Do I wait until his tests start showing more decline or go to another doctor? > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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