First of all, my apologies for writing this long two-part posting, but by doing so I am ‘setting the scene’ and hope that other forum readers may find it interesting or even informative and helpful.
About 18 months ago my wife was diagnosed with ‘Cap-Gras syndrome’ and Lewy-Body Dementia. For anyone reading this who is not familiar with Cap-Gras syndrome (Google it for more information) here is a brief description of its effects:
Someone suffering from Cap-Gras has, as a result of their brain damage, lost the connection between the visual face recognition area in the right temporal lobe and the area of the brain that provides the emotional response to that face.
A person with Cap-Gras may see their spouse’s face and recognize it but they don’t have the warm feeling that goes along with it. They don’t experience that feeling of familiarity and are therefore likely to think that this can’t be their spouse although he/she looks and acts exactly like him/her and even knows everything that their spouse will know about their relationship. He/she must therefore be an imposter living in the house.
A person with Cap-Gras may also believe that his/her house is not his/her house but another one exactly like it and in exactly the same location. This is an extension of the same visual recognition problem. The house is recognized but the connection with the emotional response is missing, and as a result he/she has no feeling of familiarity, and no amount of discussion about the improbability of this occurring will convince him/her otherwise.
For the spouse of that person it is quite traumatic and, for the person with Cap-Gras to believe she is being cared for by an imposter and not her true spouse, must be absolutely terrifying.
These recognition problems can vary in severity from day to day and may change suddenly within an hour or even a few minutes. Problems with attention and alertness are very common and a person with DLB may fall asleep very easily by day, but have restless, disturbed nights. They may also have difficulties with judging distances and perceiving objects in three dimensions, as well as with planning and organising.
Over the last year or so since she was formally diagnosed my wife has experienced all of the above problems and as each week passes it is very obvious to me and our family that she is progressively deteriorating. Looking after her 24/7 is quite demanding and stressful for me but I intend to carry on doing it (hopefully with some external support) since I just cannot bear the thought of ‘sentencing’ her to a nursing home all the while I am physically able to cope with her needs.
I’ll give more details of our current situation in a second post shortly.
About 18 months ago my wife was diagnosed with ‘Cap-Gras syndrome’ and Lewy-Body Dementia. For anyone reading this who is not familiar with Cap-Gras syndrome (Google it for more information) here is a brief description of its effects:
Someone suffering from Cap-Gras has, as a result of their brain damage, lost the connection between the visual face recognition area in the right temporal lobe and the area of the brain that provides the emotional response to that face.
A person with Cap-Gras may see their spouse’s face and recognize it but they don’t have the warm feeling that goes along with it. They don’t experience that feeling of familiarity and are therefore likely to think that this can’t be their spouse although he/she looks and acts exactly like him/her and even knows everything that their spouse will know about their relationship. He/she must therefore be an imposter living in the house.
A person with Cap-Gras may also believe that his/her house is not his/her house but another one exactly like it and in exactly the same location. This is an extension of the same visual recognition problem. The house is recognized but the connection with the emotional response is missing, and as a result he/she has no feeling of familiarity, and no amount of discussion about the improbability of this occurring will convince him/her otherwise.
For the spouse of that person it is quite traumatic and, for the person with Cap-Gras to believe she is being cared for by an imposter and not her true spouse, must be absolutely terrifying.
These recognition problems can vary in severity from day to day and may change suddenly within an hour or even a few minutes. Problems with attention and alertness are very common and a person with DLB may fall asleep very easily by day, but have restless, disturbed nights. They may also have difficulties with judging distances and perceiving objects in three dimensions, as well as with planning and organising.
Over the last year or so since she was formally diagnosed my wife has experienced all of the above problems and as each week passes it is very obvious to me and our family that she is progressively deteriorating. Looking after her 24/7 is quite demanding and stressful for me but I intend to carry on doing it (hopefully with some external support) since I just cannot bear the thought of ‘sentencing’ her to a nursing home all the while I am physically able to cope with her needs.
I’ll give more details of our current situation in a second post shortly.