Hi All

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

I started in this group in 2003 and was a regular until 2006 when Jim went into

a nursing home. Some of you know me and some of you don't. I answer a few posts

now and then and I lurk and try to keep up on the latest news.

Jim is not doing well. He has swallowing issues and has stopped eating and has

lost a lot of weight. He also has horrible congestion. I hate winters and

sickness! An X-Ray was taken yesterday and it shows probable pneumonia, but they

are not sure. They faxed the information to the doctor. I have a feeling it will

not be treated since Jim put in his Health Directive many years ago when he was

in good health and sound mind that he did not want to be treated for Pneumonia

if he had severe dementia and it was to prolong his life and last May when Jim

was in the hospital with Aspiration Pneumonia, it was treated and Jim's daughter

with the POA for Jim's health and the nurse decided not to treat it next

time. Jim's daughter usually follows his wishes in the Health Directive. I have

been able to request treatment in the past for Jim, but his daughter has the

last word on the decisions. 

I will call in Hospice if it will not be treated.

My emotions are all over the place seeing Jim like this. I have prepared and

known his time would come, but truly I don't know how you can prepare for

something like this. I will be scared and lost without him. How do you get

through it?! I want to hang onto him, but he is losing the battle, I can sense

it. He has been a fighter and come through so many times that I thought I was

going to lose him, but this time I don't think there is any  turning back. He is

very weak from all the loss of weight.

Jim was diagnosed in 2003 with Lewy Body Dementia, but it actually came into

full bloom in 2000, the neurologist was not familiar with Lewy Body at that

time.

For those that remember I had an interview back in August by an interviewer for

a Dutch magazine on Jim's Capgras Syndrome, the magazine did come out with the

article this month, but it is in Dutch, because the interviewer was from

Amsterdam. I have a resident's daughter at the nursing home translating it for

me, they are from Amsterdam. It is 3 pages long. I tried the online translation

to English, but the English is very poor that it is almost as bad as trying to

read the Dutch. Hahahaha  After it is translated, I will scan a copy to

and hopefully, she can get it across to all of you.

Last July the interviewer contacted the LBDA, as you might remember, and

and put the word out that he would be in the San Francisco Bay Area and

needed someone that he could interview in August on Capgras for the

" Psychologie " Magazine in Amsterdam. I guess I was the only one that contacted

him and said I could do it, so he met me at the nursing home where my husband is

residing. The interview was 2  1/2 hours long. He was very easy to talk to, he

had his tape recorder and asked questions and I would answer and ramble on. LOL

I told him Capgras was a symptom within Lewy Body that some have and some

don't and that it doesn't vary that much or happen everyday and that I could not

make a page for him in the magazine with just Capgras alone. I told him about

Lewy Body too, so he could connect it with Capgras, but I am not sure how the

article came out since he was assigned to do Capgras only and I have a feeling

he made some of the Lewy Body issues into Capgras issues to fill the pages. I'll

know after it is translated how he told the story.

Jan Colello

San Francisco Bay Area, California

husband, Jim dx w/LBD 2003