How It All Began

Everyday with frontotemporal dementia brings new challenges and dilemmas. With FTD, my mother has experienced every type of symptom that can come about. Some of the issues or difficult tasks are:
-Slow motor skills
-Language skills, which includes everything from finding words to being able form a complete sentence
-Loss of cognitive skills
-Loss of all problem solving skills
-Lack of emotions; usually 'neutral' or 'uncontrolled crying'

The back story is rather long and detailed, so this is kind of(haha) the short version. My mother was only diagnosed with FTD in January of 2012. However, she has been categorized in the moderate to early-advanced stages. Signs that pointed towards something being wronged became apparent when I was a teenager(about 8 years ago). Since then, she has changed jobs multiple times, never staying anywhere for more than 2 years. My mother would always say that she just got tired of that job, but she would also get fired occasionally as well. She was a good worker, so I never understood why and she wasn't able to tell me why. She would also change friends the same way. She would have a new best friend every few years. When asked what happened to her other friends, the answer was always, 'I don't know. They won't talk to me anymore.'. She would change hobbies the same way always adapting to what she thought somebody else expected of her.
When she lost he last job that she had in the summer of 2011, she eventually had to move in with my aunt and me due to finances. I'd been living my aunt for the past 6 years while I tried to figure out my life and finish school. I was trying to move out in a few months and try to be an independent adult. Now that my mom had moved in, and something was obviously wrong, those plans got put on hold.
On a Saturday in December, both my aunt and I had had enough. To be honest, my mom had just been sitting around the house and deteriorating before our eyes for the past week or so. She wasn't trying to find a job, not helping out at home, and was content to just sit and be a slug. Her mental state had declined as well as her communication skills. We went to the emergency room, not knowing what else to do. After a 14 hour long stay, Mom was admitted to the psychiatric unit due to being suicidal. After a week, she was released with a recommendation of following up with a neurologist. We saw the neurologist a month later. After cognitive, motor, and language tests, we received the diagnoses of frontotemporal dementia. There is no real treatment. Alzheimer's drugs can somewhat help stabilize, but not very successfully. She takes 5 different prescriptions a day, and it seems that every time we go to the doctor we get a new one. The true blessing in this disease, is that she doesn't really know what's going on. My aunt and I have explained it, as well as the neurologist. She just continues on her way, doing what she can everyday. She's 58 and doesn't realize that her time has been cut drastically short in a very harsh and cruel manner. My aunt and I are reminded of it everyday when she calls us the wrong name, or can't remember what she did that afternoon. FTD now rules our lives. From making sure that moms food is cut into bite sized pieces to helping her choose what to wear each day. She goes to an adult daycare facility 3 days a week. Aside from making sure that she's safe, the day center makes sure that mom is able to do things that she still can with a sense of pride and accomplishment. My mom still loves to crochet, but can only make these very odd looking BIG hats. She doesn't know that she's making a completely useless thing, although we have found that they make good chair covers!, but she enjoys it and it makes her use her brain. As summer comes, we're not sure what else will happen. But life is a journey and always full of surprises.