FTD and PPA-- it ain't AD

I have a phone conversation, or maybe it was an email, with an old college friend. We haven't had close contact over the years, but the mutual trust and friendship have never wavered.

By coincidence, and my great fortune, she is a dementia related health advocate expert, based in another state.

I tell her about what has been going on with my dad, and she says, "Does he have FTD or PPA?"

I have never heard of FTD or PPA! 

I google it - 

FrontoTemporal Dementia 

Primary Progressive Aphasia

I read the descriptions, and I am sure FTD is what he has.  

Its not Alzheimer's disease (AD), which has a different set of presenting manifestations and a speedier decline. It might be misdiagnosed as psychiatric disease.  

The course of this disease has been so insidious and so slow, we didn't see it coming, and yet we were suffering with the consequences of it for at least 9 years prior to the sentinel event of 12/23/09.

http://www.brain.northwestern.edu/pdfs/ftdppaconference/ApproachesToBehaviors.pdf

http://www.brain.northwestern.edu/pdfs/ftdppaconference/ExpandingCareTeamMidLate.pdf

http://www.brain.northwestern.edu/pdfs/ftdppaconference/CopingRelationshipBehaviorChanges.pdf