Where is the Beginning?

When a patient and carer finally meet a consultant or specialist nurse or similar to discuss concerns, one likely question asked will be 'When did this begin?' This question has been posed to me many times over the years, and I never know what to answer. This is because there was no clear starting point for my husband's symptoms. They just crept up on us.

I can look back and remember significant moments, but unlike birth and death or divorce or breaking a bone, neurological problems tend to emerge over time. So before I post my husband's current and complex diagnosis, let's journey back in time to a significant moment ten years ago. I call it significant now, but at the time it was just something that happened.

The year is 2014. My husband Chris and I are living in a large bungalow in Bexhill with about a quarter of an acre of garden.

Chris was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes as a younger adult, and his eyesight has suffered. I had also noticed his energy levels were decreasing. So I now mow the extensive lawn and take an increasing role in maintaining the garden. We have a large vegetable patch and fruit cages hidden behind some bushes to the rear of the garden.

One day Chris tells me unexpectedly that he is not prepared to go down to the end of the garden anymore, unless I come too, because there is a man living down there. I know his eyesight is deteriorating, so I go down the garden on my own, check the shed and the fence for holes and tell him not to be so ridiculous. There is no man living at the end of our garden. Eventually Chris's obsession with the garden man just seems to fade away.

September 2023: First appointment with consultant neurologist. He asks 'Do you get hallucinations?'

Comments

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