We lost our son to Pick's disease a few years ago. Pick's disease is a strange and hideous brain disorder. He was a young man when he passed. Pick's disease is a rare and irreversible form of dementia. It has some similarities to Alzheimer's disease. Pick's runs a shorter course then Alzheimer's. The average length is about 6 years. Pick's tends to affect only certain parts of the brain but Alzheimer's can affect any part. We were relieved to hear that Picks is usually not passed down genetically. We had 2 other boys that we were concerned about. Pick's generally progresses slowly, shrinking tissues in the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain. Speech difficulty, impaired thinking and behavior changes take place slowly but continue to worsen over time.
Jon, our son, was a strapping 6 foot 3 man and rarely sick. He loved to water ski and snow ski. While he was in the Navy they sailed to the Phillipines where he spent several weeks in sick bay with a mysterious illness. As we look back we wonder, was this the start of Pick's? The doctors did not know what was wrong at the time. There were signs that Jon was very troubled, which may have been a red flag. We had no idea that he was terminally ill with a form of Alzheimer's disease or dementia. As the disease progressed it was necessary to place him in a facility where he could live on his own for a time, however, it became more and more of a struggle to meet his needs. At this point we had a choice, care for him at home or place him in a private Alzheimer's facility. We chose to place him in the private facility where he would have constant and professional care. He remained there for about 2 years and then through a doctor friend we were able to place him in a state accredited Alzheimer's lock up unit. Most of the patients here were much older than Jon. Pick's disease usually strikes younger people.
DISEASE
Jon became increasingly worse over the next few years, reaching a point where he couldn't even feed himself. This was a horrible and difficult time for our family and friends to witness Jon going through the progression of this disease. At the young age of 38 we lost Jon.
Both forms of dementia, Alzheimer's disease in the old and Pick's disease in the young , are still a mysteries to the medical community. To this day we do not know what caused Pick's disease to develop in our son. As is the case with many diseases we felt that his immune system had broken down. At the time we asked if an autopsy would reveal the cause. Medical science had no answers for us. We hope and pray that medical science will soon come up with a cure for this hideous and rare disease.
Strange Disease - Jon's True Story DISEASE
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