Welcome New Members

Posted March 1, 2012 · March 1, 2012

Let me introduce myself to the group. My name is and I live in the

Seattle area of the Pacific Northwest. I am 57 and my husband is 63.

I suppose my story is like many of yours. It started about 5 years ago with

the strange accusations of cheating and accusing friends of theft. To me he

was almost obsessed with the ideas. I felt as though my marriage was

crumbling and came to believe that if I was being accused of infidelity, he

must be cheating on me. Then about 3 years ago he started to fall

frequently and his employer was giving him trouble about his handwriting.

Although his orthopedist told him he thought it was Parkinson's, he went to

another orthopedist who performed shoulder surgery hoping to release some

trapped nerves. Post surgery we noted nothing had changed with his writing

even though other things (stiff neck) did seem better. His depression

deepened.

Since he worked for a correctional facility, the ability to walk, run and

write are essential parts of the job. They finally sent him for a psych

eval, and due to potential side effects from his PD meds, he was medically

retired last year. That devastated him and applying for social security

made him feel older than he was. He was getting difficult to understand and

his decline was rapid and sad to watch. I blamed his employer. We made

many trips back to his neurologist because the medications had appeared to

stop working. She repeatedly told us that was all there was and sent us

home.

In January of this year, I found another neurologist. I did not get to

attend the appointment with him since he had forgotten what day it was on

and after taking an afternoon off for no appointment, I could not also get

the next day off. Just as well, I was so frustrated at his inability to

find a hospital he had been too many times and driving in circles was making

me nuts. After visiting with the new neurologist he brought home some

paperwork and told me he could not understand why he needed a second

opinion. He thought she was the second opinion. She adjusted his

medications and he seemed happy with that, but not any better. His

accusations of me taking his things and throwing them away was tearing us

up. He had " proof " he said, that I was trying to destroy any proof that he

ever existed. I was accused of taking photos of him as a child and

newspaper clippings of family members obits. He verbally attacked me one

day wanting to know why I was lip-locked with this woman downtown. He SAW

me and what did I see in her.

I sat down and noticed the paper he had gotten and it was sitting with some

bills. I looked at it for the first time roughly 2 weeks after he brought

it home. It was there I saw the words " Lewy Body " and referral to a

specialist. I googled it, read about it. reading many of the blogs this

site references. I was broken and sobbed. What he was going through with

the forgetting things and accusations/delusions/paranoia all seemed to fit

in with what I read about the disease. Unfortunately, the Booth Gardner

Center has not been able to get him in for an appointment yet. It is

getting unbearable at home. He is hording and not letting the dogs our and

then not cleaning it up. And then he blames me. He wants to help, but

frequently will ruin a pleasant evening going back to accusations driven by

paranoia. He has stared have visual hallucinations as well, seeing corn in

his 7-bean soup that had nothing even yellow it in.

The most difficult part for me has been that he doesn't want to believe

that he is wrong in his beliefs. I have no one who understands to talk to.

I hope this group helps.

Posted March 1, 2012 · March 1, 2012