ALS and Frontotemporal Dementia
Diseases can come with running mates
When I was caregiving my spouse for the ten and a half months that we knew he had ALS, no one ever mentioned frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Yet even in the first two or three months, as I took over more of the household routine and business, I became aware that something had been amiss far longer than we’d thought. I found a bank account accruing NSF charges, month after month, and a number of credit card accounts as if every bank invite that had come in the mail had been duly filled out.
Even in week two after our GP gave a preliminary diagnosis (based on previous experience with three patients, and the simple question — “have your emotions been out of control lately?”) even then, my spouse admitted to being unable to come up with words, and how language facility felt to be slipping away. It had been too long since he could ably play the gypsy jazz guitar he loved so much; he’d thought it was the result of carpal tunnel or arthritis. But the cognitive was as messed up as the physical. Maybe more, in those early days.
No one said anything
True, the evidence does seem to be growing exponentially at this point in time. But even in 2015–16, when we were in the midst of living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and…
