Alzheimer's Awareness Month: Local couple shares journey with Frontotemporal Dementia

ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — November is Alzheimer's Awareness Month and Family Caregivers Month and the Alzheimer’s Association provides resources for people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and their caregivers.

7News anchor Adrianna Hopkins is sharing the story of her friends Nick and Maureen Kalenich. They met at the Walk to End Alzheimer's in Reston in October 2022.

Recently, Nick reached out to Adrianna and said his wife’s Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) is progressing rapidly. They agreed to share their story.

Nick worked as a nurse and paramedic for years and has a sixth sense of the signs and signals of a potential medical issue.

“It's just the nature of the type of work that you do - you're patient-oriented, and you pick up on little cues and stuff like that. Whether it be breathing, skin color, or body motion,” explained Nick.

A few years back, he noticed Maureen started dragging her right leg and holding her arms in an awkward position. He took her to a neurologist who gave them a diagnosis a little less than 6 months later.

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“The problem with dementia is there is no specific test to say you have this type of dementia,” Nick said. “It's a series of tests that they rule out that it's not this dementia, that dementia. I mean, she had spinal taps that had to be sent to Minnesota. She had specialized blood tests that only one lab in the United States in California did. I mean, all kinds of stuff.”

“The Neurologist knew something was wrong,” Maureen said. “He went to the back of the office. And then he came back and he had this look on his face, that he knew something was wrong, and was trying to figure out how and tell us.”

“Do you remember what it was like? Getting the diagnosis?” asked Adrianna.

“Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I remember. It was the worst feeling because it didn’t even enter the help me with the word Yeah, we weren’t even it wasn’t even on the radar is what I want to say that, that’s what it was,” said Maureen.

One symptom of FTD is word searching. Maureen said it happens quite a bit; Nick said they’ve developed their own language because of it.

7News will share more of Nick and Maureen’s story throughout the month.