My husband is mean to me now.

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Zephyr

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Joined
Feb 2, 2021
Messages
13
Reason
CALS
Diagnosis
02/2022
Country
US
State
CA
City
San Andreas
My husband has had bulbar onset als since Oct 2020, finally diagnosed 2/2022.

He has always been so sweet, now he is mean to me. Is this common? I know he is so depressed. He is going downhill now, and is angry. I cry so much now. I do not know what to do. I just try to be invisible.
 
I am very sorry. It may be depression/ displaced anger as you say. You should also consider FTD ( frontal temporal dementia) which can occur along with ALS. With that personality change is common. Either way discuss with his neurologist ( message them)

it is terribly difficult and very hurtful whatever the cause. My mother had FTD- ALS and I currently have another relative living with it now Even knowing it is the disease not the person it is very difficult. I hope you can find support for yourself but please do talk to the neuro if it is depression it is treatable. If it is FTD sometimes they can mitigate it with medication
 
Thank you for replying, both of my parents ended up with dementia. Mom had FTD, Dad had vascular. I am hoping this is not the case. He is fighting getting a peg tube and if I don't whip something up he gets very nasty. He is ok now, I made cheesy broccoli soup blended. Hoping he was hangry .
 
I am sorry dementia has already touched your life. Is the mean behavior about feeding issues only? My sister did not have FTD or depression but resisted a feeding tube very strongly. She wasn’t mean about it but it was definitely a touchy issue FWIW when she finally had it she wished she had done it when it was first suggested
 
Zephyr, I'm sorry it's so rough for you both right now. Hopefully it's not FTD. Because then you could try talking to him and how it makes you feel when you get ground up between his anger, the care work and the grief.
I know it helped me hugely to have emotional support from my boyfriend/PALS. It might seem egotistical to actively demand that from a terminally ill person, but it's kind of what being there for each other entails.

Of course I can't put myself in a PALS' shoes but maybe some not only struggle with losing abilities for their own sake but also with not being able to provide and help their family. So maybe it helps to guide him towards how he can be there for you, still. Like a thank you nod or blink, having a bit of extra patience and - if you want to get deep - remembering that you're about to lose him and that that puts him in the rare position to comfort you in your already very real grief.

The PEG-tube makes everything much easier but I get how that's a scary thing for him. When we talked about this, I promised my PALS complete self-control over what goes through that tube (although stating that enough water is a must for as long as he actively wanted to live, without hydration it's no fun on either end). The PEG is not about being force-fed and hanging on tubes. It's a weird piercing but it can make your cheesy broccoli soup a luxury rather than an exhausting existential task and choking hazard.
 
Of all the horrible things ALS visits on us (collectively), I think FTD is the cruelest. When the dementia set in I had to decide that I was the caregiver and my husband was no longer in his "right mind". That enabled me to not take things personally and be matter-of-fact about certain situations. There's a price to pay for this on the other side, but it got me through when he needed me. My heart goes out to you.
 
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