From: judgebean23x@gmail.com   
      
   'It breaks your heart': a family's struggle with younger onset dementia   
       
   ABC News   
   5 days ago   
      
   When asked what her dad was like before dementia, 14-year-old Carly says "the   
   best", before bursting into tears.   
   © ABC News: Margaret Burin When asked what her dad was like before dementia,   
   14-year-old Carly says "the best", before bursting into tears.   
   "Have you got a bra on? What colour?"   
      
   If you are a woman, this is likely to be one of the first things Paul Muir   
   will ask when you meet him.   
      
   The question may be inappropriate, but it is not because Paul is rude, or   
   trying to make anyone feel uncomfortable.   
      
   At just 46 he has frontotemporal dementia, which progressively damages parts   
   of the brain that affect behaviour, personality and emotions.   
      
   He now lives in an aged care facility in Melbourne's west.   
      
   "He asked my son's mates if they're circumcised, asks Carly and their friends   
   if they've got their period, got pubes," his wife Suzie says.   
      
   "He's very inappropriate.   
      
   "But that's not him. It's the disease."   
      
   'They miss their dad'   
      
   Suzie says the younger onset dementia has left her husband a shell of his   
   former self.   
      
   The pair have known each other since school and became a couple in their early   
   20s.   
      
   Paul, a blokey bloke, worked as a straddle driver at the wharf, was a local   
   football coach and active dad in the lives of his teenage kids, and granddad   
   to their older daughter's kids.   
      
   We did our last big holiday. It was fun, it was hectic and it was hard," Suzie   
   says. Paul, pictured with his children and grandchildren on Hamilton Island   
   January 2015.   
   © ABC News: Margaret Burin We did our last big holiday. It was fun, it was   
   hectic and it was hard," Suzie says. Paul, pictured with his children and   
   grandchildren on Hamilton Island January 2015.   
   "They're too young to have their dad have dementia. They miss him.   
      
   "It breaks your heart, he can't be there for them."   
      
   His unusual behaviour started about three years ago.   
      
   "He'd ring his mate and say that his daughter had been hit by a car," Suzie   
   says.   
      
   "People from work who were lazy, he'd say I'm going to kill your kids. But   
   he's not aggressive at all, so it was really weird, the behaviours."   
      
   He also started becoming obsessed with food.   
      
   "He had a six pack, he was 87 kilograms, he went to the gym, he was a runner   
   for the seniors."   
      
   The turning point came around a year ago, when his behaviour became   
   increasingly unsafe, including wandering into neighbours' homes.   
      
   He was diagnosed with younger onset dementia, and was admitted to hospital.   
      
   "I knew then that he wasn't coming back home," Suzie says.   
      
   Paul spent six months in the hospital's secure ward before Suzie could find   
   somewhere that would care for him.   
      
   At one stage, he spent two weeks in one aged care facility before they said   
   they could not handle him.   
      
   "Because he was a rare case, a young male with more aggressive symptoms ...   
   they said he was too intimidating, families complained, they weren't trained   
   to be honest," she says.   
      
   "So they kicked him out."   
      
   Younger people with dementia lost in the system   
      
   While Suzie pictured these years to be filled with family holidays at the   
   river, barbecues with their large circle of friends, and running around after   
   their teenagers, her days are spent visiting her husband at an aged care   
   facility.   
      
   "It's just my daily routine," she says.   
      
   "I need to get a job soon because soon his income protection will be cut out."   
      
   Dementia is generally seen as an older person's disease.   
      
   But growing numbers of people under the age of 65 are being diagnosed with the   
   condition.   
      
   There are an estimated 25,000 Australians living with younger onset dementia.   
      
   Suzie would like to see more facilities specifically for younger people with   
   dementia, acquired brain injuries and other illnesses, and investment in a   
   greater number of staff trained to stimulate residents.   
      
   "He's too young to go on the aged pension. No one knows what to do with him,"   
   she says.   
      
   "I can't be there 24 hours a day.   
      
   "It's unfair that Paul has to be in an aged care facility. There's not enough   
   facilities for people like Paul."   
      
   She says her husband has been lost in the system.   
      
      
      
   http://www.msn.com/en-au/health/medical/it-breaks-your-heart-a-f   
   milys-struggle-with-younger-onset-dementia/ar-BBtBZMV?li=AAgfLCP   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)