‘I thought my teenager had Long Covid – it turned out to be dementia’
A mom was left horrified when she found her daughter didn’t have Long Covid, however had dementia as an alternative. Rebecca Robertson, 50, from Texas, USA, was shocked to find her teenage daughter, Gianna Cabo, now 20, had the incurable degenerative illness.
Ms Robertson mentioned issues started in June 2019, when the pair have been concerned in a automobile crash. In June 2020 they each fell severely sick with COVID-19.
Although each recovered from their preliminary signs from each the crash and Covid, issues took a flip for the more serious in September 2020 when Gianna returned to highschool.
Ms Robertson mentioned she went straight from the highest to the underside of the category in a matter of weeks. She mentioned: “All of a sudden, she went from being a straight-A student to me crying and begging a teacher to pass so she could graduate.
“The doctors thought it could be stress and prescribed her antidepressants, but it didn’t work. If she was asked why she hadn’t done her homework, she would say she didn’t remember.”
At first, the pair thought Gianna may very well be affected by mind fog and the long-term results of COVID-19, however throughout one dialog, Ms Roberts realised it may be one thing extra severe.
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She said: “It was more than brain fog; it was a lack of emotion. She just started drifting away. I asked her what was the happiest moment of your life, and she just looked confused and said ‘I don’t bear in mind’.”
As 2020 changed into 2021 Gianna continued to deteriorate. She withdrew from buddies, stopped doing her homework and would go to sleep as quickly as she arrived residence from college.
Fast ahead to November 2022 and Ms Robertson took her daughter to see a neurologist the place they discovered there was no exercise in her proper central lobe and she or he was recognized with dementia.
Ms Robertson mentioned: “I felt like someone had just punched me in my heart. I sat there stunned. I thought this can’t be true, she’s only 19. I never thought it could be dementia – not in my wildest dreams.”
She added: “Every day I see a little bit of her fade away. I try not to associate my feelings with it because I’m so focussed on getting her better, but I’m scared to death. I’m not going to give up on my kid. I can’t give up. Hopefully, we’ll find a new doctor who can help.”
Ms Robertson mentioned she prays there’s a remedy on the market that can provide her some residence. She mentioned Gianna “doesn’t laugh anymore. She doesn’t get out of bed. Whatever you ask her, any time of the day or night, she just says ‘I don’t remember’.”
She added: “The saddest part is it doesn’t bother Gianna. There’s no emotion there. None. She’s 100 percent apathetic.”
Gianna is certainly one of 1000’s of sufferers residing within the UK and USA with a type of dementia generally known as young-onset dementia.
Charity Alzheimer’s Society mentioned: “Like all people with dementia, younger people may experience a wide range of symptoms, especially in the early stages of dementia. However, they are likely to need different support from older people.”
They added: “The causes of young-onset, or early-onset dementia are similar to the diseases that usually cause dementia in older people.
“However, some causes, such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD), are more common in younger people.
“Dementia in younger people often has different symptoms, even when it’s caused by the same diseases as in older people.”