There was an interesting post on the LBDcaregivers Yahoo!Group over the weekend that I thought I’d pass along. The information isn’t new but I really appreciated reading the examples given. (By the way, this issue isn’t unique to LBD; it happens in other non-Alzheimer’s dementias as well. The brain is a fascinating place!)
Last week, someone had posted about her LBD father putting all of his pills in a glass of water and then drinking the water. It seemed that the father had forgotten the right order of things.
Over the weekend, a second LBD caregiver replied this way:
“One way LBD differs slightly from Alzheimer’s is that there are more executive function difficulties with LBD. According to my research, Alzheimer’s patients have a great deal of trouble storing memory. That’s why they’ll repeat the same story 2 or 3 times in a ten minute conversation, for instance. They don’t remember that they’ve already told the story because that memory didn’t get stored in their brain. LBD patients don’t normally have trouble storing memory, they have trouble retrieving it correctly. Back when my husband was still capable of fixing his lunch, he would do things like put a hotdog on a plate, put it in the microwave, put ketchup on it THEN put it in the bun. He had all the steps, just not in the right order. One time, he filled a glass bowl with tomato soup, then put the bowl directly on the stove unit. Again, he knew soup went in a bowl and needed to be heated, but he left about the part about using a pan.”