Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Belly Dancing
10/10/2007 03:49 p.m.

Dementia with Lewy Bodies is the diagnosis being considered for Meme now. It explains so much, the hallucinations, the neurological difficulties in her legs and hands, the excessive sweating, the flucuating blood pressures, the incontinence, the memory difficulties, the confusion that comes and goes. But it is not a diagnosis to be gladly embraced. Dementia with Lewy bodies has an even shorter and more miserable life expectancy than Alzheimer's, and I've watched Alzheimer's eat through a patient's brain. It isn't pretty. But DLB is a system-wide condition rather than being limited to just the brain. The prognosis is typically 5-7 years from onset, and it appears that Meme has had this for some time (maybe a year or so). According to the research I've done, most DLB patients die from an infection (like pneumonia because of eventual food aspiration as the swallowing mechanism fails).

I know that everyone dies. But to decline like this, to be aware of the strangeness of her condition as she is, to not understand what time of day it is, or to think that maybe I'm Alison, but not the "right" Alison; to want to go home but be worried that if she "acts up" anymore we won't take her... I feel guilty, but I can only hope it happens quickly now. When she was crying out to Jesus to help her, bargaining that if He got her out this mess she PROMISED not to get into a mess like this again, and no relief came for her, I thought my heart would break.

And if she does indeed have Dementia with Lewy bodies, my considerations as far as caring for her at home are clearer. I think I might be able to do it for a time, now, when she is still in her right mind most of the time and not combative. But if her legs fail completely and she can't get up at all, or, worse, she DOES get up and forgets that her legs aren't working and (god forbid) falls and breaks more bones if I'm not right there in the same room with her at all times...I just know that my 24/7/every minute caregiving abilities at the level where she can do nothing at all for herself are going to be limited. Even a baby can be left to nap once they're sleeping. But she would not be able to be left like that. So.....we'll see after this weekend. My aunt is coming from Arizona for a week, and my mother will come from Portland, and we'll have a family meeting about it.

On a lighter and much more pleasant note, my step sisters from California got me the WILDEST and CRAZIEST birthday present EVER. Those resourceful, wonderful, clever, awesome women searched out my po-dunk little town, and found, of all things, a BELLY DANCING class!!! And then, they PAID for lessons for me!!!! I can't even imagine my rotund body performing such otherwise seductive moves.....BUT....I'm going to do it anyway!!! They are convinced I need to be around vibrant women crazy enough to belly-dance, and they think it will be good for me!!! I have tomorrow and the next day off, so I'm going to call the teacher then. *giggling* I can't believe I'm going to take Belly Dancing lessons.

Life is amazing.


I am currently Dorky
I am listening to an electric wood chopper down the street eat a tree