Jim's Dementia Journey

Jim & I have been married for 43 years, he has never been sick a day in his life. I am the unhealthy one in the family; 6 years ago I had an emergency quadruple bypass, Jim was there to take care of me get me back to good health; now Jim needs help. He was recently diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, there is no cure for this disease.

On June 20th Jim fell in the bedroom as he was getting ready for bed, he hit his head on the tile floor; he got up, said he was okay and went to bed. The next morning when he got up he was so disoriented up he could not find his way around the house; he didn’t know where any rooms were.  I knew something was wrong, I took him to the hospital where they ran all kinds of tests on him; they found fluid on the brain; the doctors wanted to do surgery to drain it but they discovered he has frontotemporal dementia and wouldn’t do the surgery. The surgeon said it would either make the dementia worse or Jim would not make it out of the O. R. From there he went to a rehab for two weeks, I was told he could never go home again. This type of dementia makes  some people combative which it did Jim. He was combative with the nurses at the hospital and rehab. The doctors said they feared for my safety, he would not harm me intentionally but it would be something he couldn’t control. The fall also caused him to be very unstable, he has lost all muscle strength in his legs and can't walk unassisted. I had to buy him a wheelchair amd a walker.

 The doctors recommended putting him in a dementia group home. I found a nice one not too far from where I live; I now have to pay $4,300 a month for his care at the home. We had enough money for the first month but no more. I don’t know what I am going to do from here on out. We are both retired and don’t have that much money. I still have all of the expenses on our home which did not change.

Thank you for reading my story. If you feel it in your heart to donate, please know that any donation for Jim, small or large would be greatly appreciated. If you financially cannot make a donation, consider sharing this post and please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Blessings To All,
Jeanette

Help spread the word!