Hi all

For those who remember me I thought I would update the group and
perhaps sharing my experiences may be of some use to someone here.

My husband was diagnosed variously with  Parkinson's, Multiple System
Atrophy and when he ended up in hospital last year he was diagnoses
with Lewy Body Dementia, Dementia caused by abuse of benzodiazapine and
finally Frontal Lobe Dementia (with various other dementias, not
specified)

As of May this year I had advised the doctors that I could not cope
with him at home because of his agression but was shafted by our
medical system when they released him to a rehab house for people with
mental illness and then discharged him completely so there was nothing
I could do to stop him from coming home, which he did by banging on the
door at 4:30 am.

So he has been home for a few months now but I have to say that the
medications he is on makes it reasonably OK so far.

That is not to say we have not had our moments, and I still see the
paranoia and so forth but the agression is for the most part more him
annoyed or nasty than anything more and for the most part I ignore it.

One thing that amazes me is that he is certainly not the agressive,
paranoid and delusional man he was last year, but neither is he the man
he was before that.

He used to suffer from agoraphobia which no longer exists, he eats
well, he walks lots and he is going out to social functions, catching
buses and trains by himself. He cooks, he cleans and is very neat.

I know he has diffculty thinking of anyone but himself, although he has
been a little more considerate  now than he has in the past. He even
smokes outside.

I am not lulled into a false sense of anything and I am waiting for the
axe to fall, and I know it will, but to some extent he is so much
easier to live with than at anytime in the past 26 years.

I also know that there is no way of knowing how long things will stay
this way.  I do understand that  the damage to the frontal lobe is why
the agoraphobia has passed because the part of the brain that made him
feel anxious and panicked is no longer functioning that way and that
this can cause great changes in behaviour, either for the better or the
worse.

I saw too much of the worse last year and early this year and at the
moment am seeing some ofthe better.

What astounds me is the degree of change. He is almost a totally
different man. However if I sometimes wonder whether they got the
diagnosis wrong I am brought back sharply at the things he cannot do
and should be able to and I see the signs others might miss.  One funny
episode was where he rang me at work and said ''guess who won the
raffle at the club today?" Me thinking it must have been him asked 'did
you win' to which he responded 'no' when I asked him who won he
responded 'I don't know'

Although this disease is cruel and not a laughing matter there are
times when he makes me laugh and then I shake my head and remember why
he would say or do whatever it was.

Anyway just thought I would let you all know how it is going here is
Sydney.

Liz