Five years ago, I had to leave a family Christmas gathering early — my balance and memory were suddenly, inexplicably failing me. What followed were years of hospitals and emergency rooms, until we finally had a name for it: Lewy Body Dementia. It's part of daily life now for my wife Kathy and me — and so is the cost of managing it. We're asking for your help as we take the next step, whatever that looks like for you. Read our full story below. Thank you for being here with us.

Over five years ago, Kathy and I traveled to Fort Wayne for a Christmas visit with family, and partway through, it became clear something was wrong. My balance was off. My memory wasn't holding onto things the way it should. We had to leave the party early. It was confusing and painful.

We came home to Chicago, and travel of any kind has been hard ever since. What began as one strange evening became a slow unraveling — as if certain moments simply weren't being kept anymore, as if my mind couldn't hold onto them.

Kathy and I made more trips to hospitals and emergency rooms than I can count. Walking into a hospital, you're really just hoping someone can name what's happening to you — and each answer came slowly, and at real financial cost. Eventually, we had one: Lewy Body Dementia, a progressive brain disorder in which abnormal protein deposits called Lewy bodies build up in nerve cells, affecting thinking, movement, mood, and behavior. It's one of the more common forms of dementia, usually beginning after age 50, and more than a million Americans live with it. Visual hallucinations are common, often early on. From diagnosis, people typically live five to eight years — sometimes as few as two, sometimes as many as twenty.

Lewy Body Dementia and Alzheimer's disease are related. Some people are familiar with Robin Williams and his bout with Lewy Body. It is clear that Kathy and I have some significant challenges ahead of us before we take our final journey.

For Kathy and me, Lewy Body Dementia is now a daily companion. The symptoms are quite diverse. They shift and flare in ways that are hard to predict, and some days the only real option is to check into a clinic and try to get some relief. Places like the Cleveland Clinic and the Lewy Body Dementia Center in Chicago have been central to piecing this together. But it's slow, and it isn't cheap. It adds up, week after week.

We're at the point now where we need to ask for help — for encouragement, and for support as we face what Lewy Body Dementia continues to bring. On September 12, we're gathering with friends in Nashville to take that next step together and to launch this GoFundMe campaign.

Please pray for us as we walk this path. We are believing for the miraculous and the possibility of healing. But in the meantime, we are committed to walking out our faith wherever it takes us. It has been a painful path, to say the least. Thank you for sharing in our journey.

— David