From Barbara:
My dear husband, Joe Anderson, has had very real problems with his short-term memory for at least a year which really worried me. As his mental health deteriorated, I decided to have our local longtime physician talk alone with Joe during an office visit last September. The doctor told me afterwards that he believed that Joe had dementia. By November, Joe's long-term memory was fading. As his condition worsened, I was his sole caregiver and life was hectic and complicated and would never be the same again for both of us.
Due to the rapid decline of his mental health, on Jan. 22nd, Joe had a CT scan of his brain at the local hospital and was diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia. The scan showed severe brain atrophy and also severe microvascular disease, conditions causing his agitation, confusion, delirium and delusions, etc.
As his condition worsened it was impossible for him to remain at home. On January 23rd, a bed was found for Joe in the senior psych. ward at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, TN for further diagnosis and to determine what kind of medication he should receive. In the hospital, he has a full-time sitter with him to prevent injury from falls. In the near future when his doctors release him, he'll go to a nursing home for as long as he lives which might not be too long in that he's already in the third and final phase or stage of dementia.
At this point Joe doesn't receive visitors or phone calls because he has trouble communicating. I talk to the floor nurse each day since he went into the hospital to find out how he's doing. Some of the medicine given to him now is helping to keep him calm and noncombative.
We have been married for 65 years, very happy years, I might add. He's had a long and interesting life of 90 years. I miss him terribly and have shed many tears over the situation, but I know he's in good hands and soon he will go to his rest as we all have to do.
Barbara