Bruce Willis & Fronto Temporal Dementia

Last March, when Bruce Willis was diagnosed with 'Aphasia", I feared the worst for him and his family. A friend of mine, who was Bruce Willis's stunt double the last seventeen years shared with me the troubles Bruce was having on the set. Aphasias are more of a symptom than a diagnosis. Early in our testing phase, Kimmy was told that she had a speech aphasia and a visual-spacial aphasia. This made sense as she was having trouble finding words and was also getting lost while driving very close to our house. What was causing the aphasias? Further testing would eventually discover the root cause, the disease that was triggering the aphasia. This is almost always some form of Dementia or Early Onset Dementia in those under the age of 65. Kimmy was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's by her neurologist and that diagnosis was confirmed by Dr. Helena Chui, the head of the cognitive development department at USC Keck Medical Center.

Early Onset Alzheimer's is the most common form of early onset dementia. Other forms are Fronto Temporal Dementia, Vascular Dementia, Pick's Disease,and Dementia with Lewy Bodies. While each of these dementias have their own specific symptoms, the truth is, that the only way to truly determine the type of dementia a person has is through a biopsy or an autopsy. Biopsy's are risky in that first, you need to access a part of the brain tissue that is diseased. Second, a biopsy can put the person at risk for a stroke. Throughout Kimmy's journey,she has been examined by a slew of doctors and neurologists. Even though her official diagnosis was early Onset Alzheimer's. many of the other doctors stated that they thought she had Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Fronto Temporal Dementia, and Vascular dementia.

It doesn't really matter which of these forms of dementia you get diagnosed with. The journey will be very similar and the end result will be the same. There are no cures for these forms of dementia.

The link below is to a publication by the Mayo Clinic. It will share a lot of information on Fronto Temporal Dementia.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/frontotemporal-dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20354737

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