Posted on 10/02/2016 9:01:46 PM PDT by BenLurkin
She describes how, toward the end of his life, “Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it.” He was struggling with paranoia, anxiety, delusions, insomnia, and other symptoms both physical and mental, and for months, he and his wife could get no answers about what was happening to him.
He was eventually diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but as his symptoms continued to worsen, he grew “weary” and it felt like they were both “drowning.” Then, ultimately, he took his own life.
It was only after his death that an autopsy revealed Williams actually had Lewy body disease — his clinical symptoms mirrored Parkinson’s, but his brain pathology showed that almost all of the neurons throughout his brain and brainstem had been besieged by Lewy bodies, Schneider Williams writes.
When she found out, she wasn’t surprised: “The mere fact that something had invaded nearly every region of my husband’s brain made perfect sense to me,” she writes.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
My heart goes out to you, and to the family of Robin Williams and all those who have to watch themselves or their loved one lose their cognitive function.
We tend to equate our personhood with our brain, and our identity with the things that are functions of brain activity, but we are so much more than our brain chemistry. We are children whom God loves dearly, regardless of the condition of our brains.
When Michael Savage says that liberalism is a brain disorder, I think that is true. I think there are a lot of people who truly can’t help the way they think. I have friends I love too much to argue with; they will probably never be able to reason things through, and I don’t think it is a conscious choice on their part. Part of it is the sources they give credibility to, but that’s probably partly dictated by their inability to reason.
It doesn’t change their value in God’s eyes, and it doesn’t change my love for them. It means I accept them where they are at, just as they accept me where I’m at.
So much of what Mrs. Williams wrote in her article is familiar to me. My husband’s brain is deteriorating and my 16-year-old daughter is facing a lot of symptoms as well, off and on like Mrs. Williams describes. We know from test results that they both have too much heavy metal (including lead and arsenic) in their bodies, and the exposure was apparently not environmental. Symptoms set on 6 weeks after I was threatened on my blog, that my husband would have to lose his job if I continued to research Loretta Fuddy’s alleged death.
It’s one thing to say that a 52-year-old man’s dementia is from an Alzheimers process (based on amyloid beta levels that would also be high in the presence of body lead levels at the very least 4 times higher than what Mayo says will cause brain damage) but it’s another thing altogether for a 16-year-old to have symptoms. But what doctor is going to check a 16-year-old for amyloid-beta levels? The medical community can’t/won’t do anything about the effects of past poisoning so the testing that would help us know where we stand is not available to us.
My heart also goes out to the families in Michigan whose water was contaminated with lead; they are in for a world of hurt, and the medical community has no way to help them.
I’m glad you’re at a place of relative peace now. Bipolar disorder is a terrible thing.
Robin Williams knew something was not right. He could feel the loss of his brain function. My husband is spared that part; he doesn’t see the deterioration, and I try my best to keep him from having to see it.
I don’t know if it’s stress or if I’ve also been poisoned since I can’t afford to be tested, but I can feel the loss of my brain function so I relate to what Mrs. Williams described for Robin.
It’s a whole different level of dying to self, to not be possessive of your own brain function but to say that the ability to remember, analyze, verbalize, etc is simply a gift of God that you’ve either been given or not. It’s OK if I don’t have all the abilities I used to have. My worth is not in what I can do, say, or think. What I can do, say, or think is a gift I did nothing to deserve, and I mean no more or less to God whether I do or don’t have those gifts. Everything we have in this life - including every ability - can be lost, but neither the presence nor loss of those abilities can change the value that God places on us simply because He loves His children. Our identity in Christ is independent of all that. What a blessing that is! We don’t need to fear the loss of anything, even if it is painful. It can’t change anything that really matters. And the pain here and now is temporary; healing comes in the end. That is our hope. I am sad for those who suffer these things without that hope.
Nice-sounding words, but ultimately meaningless.
If you had the courage to more-concretely expand upon that statement of yours (e.g.: "If the [adult] child of a late-stage dementia patient shows that patient love and concern, then that love and concern will demonstrably reverse major symptoms, and the patient will regain..."), it would become apparent even to yourself how nonsensical / unproven your assertion actually is.
I am sure that many other FReepers who have tended their ill parents - often at great personal self-sacrifice - could attest to that.
Abuse and neglect should be avoided, of course, but loving care will not have any measurable effect upon the course of the disease.
Regards,
I guess, to some.
I’m under 40 and none of my peers really found him to be anything more than a normal comedian. He thought he was more important to the whole world than he really was.
LATER
while facing this he learned The CrazY Ones with SMG was cancelled
What Dreams May Become
Agreed. Insensitive, snarky remarks, uncalled for.
If there is a correlation between drug use and brain disease, then that should enter the public discussion.
Like the correlation between abortion and breast cancer (which of course is denied covered up by the media for pc reasons).
“For the last year of his regression-into-the-past existence, my father did not recognize me as an adult. He thought his son should be a young child...”
Before we met, my wife faced the same horror. Her father had sunk into mental illness when she was only five, and he was incapable of regarding the young woman in his presence as an adult; she was a complete stranger to him.
Of course, it’s always harder on those around the mental illness victim than the sufferer.
“Our identity in Christ is independent of all that. What a blessing that is!...And the pain here and now is temporary; healing comes in the end. That is our hope.”
My mother is in a nursing home & my wife may soon succumb to Alzheimer’s. Thank you for those words of comfort, that all shall not be in vain for those who know Christ’s loving embrace.
The guy had mental problems from the very beginning. I never cared for his so-called comedic genius.
This is among the saddest threads I’ve ever read. Williams may have been a liberal, but that’s not the point. He was also one of most endearing persons in our lifetimes. I often wonder how people cope in the face of such horror.
What dreams may come...that was quite a movie. Prophetic to Williams life and death to a great degree.. metaphorically.
That was incredibly moving.
God be with you and your husband.
I get the impression that Lewy Body disease, like Alzheimer's, can only be truly diagnosed through an autopsy. Plus it's comparatively rare disorder. So it's probably misdiagnosed more often than correctly.
My mom helped my grandma through dementia that grew progressively worse over the last 16 months of her life. It was like watching a rock rolling down hill as the disease grew worse and worse at an ever increasing rate. At the end my grandma never lost her ability to recognize my mother or my sister or me, but she lived her last months in absolute terror as everything around her was strange and confusing. It is not a death I would wish on anyone, and often it's almost as hard on the family as on the sufferer themselves.
What a nightmare for him and his family.
Robin Williams gave me countless moments of laughter til the tears rolled down my face. For that, I’m grateful!
Was he flawed? Of course. His politics were wrong-headed and foolish.
I appreciate that his wife is speaking publicly about his illnesses, it will likely be useful. Like it or not sometimes “celebrity” brings awareness to areas that we need to know more about. Something for the snarks on this thread to ponder.
My Dad was diagnosed with Lewy Body about three years ago. It is a horrific combination of the worst parts of both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. In addition to the loss of cognition and motor skills, there are frequent and sometimes very scary hallucinations that accompany it.
OTOH, as a former scientist, my father has extensively researched his own disease and has come to a peaceful acceptance of God’s will for the end of his life. If ever I am discouraged or down, all I have to do is think of Dad’s loving embrace of his own mortality, and I see how small my concerns are compared to the life that awaits us.
My Dad can begin to pierce the veil, ever so slightly, and what he sees draws him ever closer to our Savior. I wish that RW could have enjoyed the same peace.
Very interesting and extremely sad.
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