Question:
I would like to know if anyone has had to deal with aparent who has lewy body disease. My father in law was recentlydiagnosed, after 4 years for seeing neurologists.

How does the family cope? Should he be left alone? (Myhusband and I don't think so, but he lives with his wifeand daughters and they do leave him for periods of time).He hallucinates, can't sleep, can't carry on aconversation, needs help getting out of a chair, going tothe bathroom, getting dressed, etc. They refuse to put himin a day care even for a couple of days a week. This was abrilliant man with a masters degree from MIT, it is so sadto see him literally decline before our very eyes

Answer: Lewy Body disease is a surprisingly common cause ofdementia, though it is relatively unheard of, even among medicalprofessionals. Its prevalence is really has really only come to lightrecently.

I believe that statistically, some twenty percent of dementia patients areLewy Body sufferers. Importantly also, most younger aged people who presentwith dementia symptoms will probably turn out to be sufferers of Lewy BodyDisease.

In short, it is a degenerative brain disease which, from experience withmy LO, seems to affect most areas of the brain. There are sites which andwill give you a better medical description that I can. Try the link at theend. But I can tell you it is plenty awful; one of those things that nobodydeserves. But can do little but grit our teeth and resolve to make the bestof what we have.

Perhaps I can tell you some of the things that stand out in my wifes'progression that made her condition seem to be different from Alzheimer'Dementia. You may relate to some of the things, but like all of thesehorrible brain afflictions, no two sufferers present exactly the same.