AFTD Ambassador Debbie Elkins and AFTD Support and Education Director Esther Kane, MSN, RN-CDP, appeared on the podcast All Home Care Matters in July to discuss the changed nature of relationships following an FTD diagnosis, anticipatory grief, and dementia’s social stigma.
A registered nurse, Elkins may seem as if she is better able to handle an FTD diagnosis than most people. But, as she told All Home Care Matters’ Lance A. Slatton, “I don’t think anyone is ever equipped to receive a diagnosis like FTD … to see your life shift from what you envisioned it would be.”
“It’s definitely a challenge,” she continued. “It has changed my relationship with my husband. He is still the same person I married nearly 40 years ago, but it took a while for me to recognize it. Before, we had a mutual partnership in which we both worked on our relationship, our home, and our lives, but our relationship has shifted to one where I am the care partner and caregiver.”
