Welcome to the podcast Sam and Tracie. Sam has LBD and shares his path to diagnosis. Tracie shares some great caregiver tips. Sam shares helpful uplifting ways he deals with his diagnosis and as Curry says...lives his best life.
A big shout out to all of our supporters!!
Thank you all for your continued support and patience with us as we try really hard to get a new podcast done- hoping we get one a week but as you all know, Lewy and life sometimes get in the way. We know you all understand and support us anyway and for that we thank you!!! xoxo
Remember...We are doing this for all of us and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Should you wish to bless us with your support for the podcast, you can use links below.
Copy and paste link, if needed
https://patreon.com/lewybodyrollercoasterpodcast
the GoFundMe page at
https://gofund.me/c416ecb6
Thank you for listening.
Don't forget to join our Lewy Body Roller Coaster Podcast Facebook page.
Welcome to the podcast Sam and Tracie. Sam has LBD and shares his path to diagnosis. Tracie shares some great caregiver tips. Sam shares helpful uplifting ways he deals with his diagnosis and as Curry says...lives his best life.
A big shout out to all of our supporters!!
Thank you all for your continued support and patience with us as we try really hard to get a new podcast done- hoping we get one a week but as you all know, Lewy and life sometimes get in the way. We know you all understand and support us anyway and for that we thank you!!! xoxo
Remember...We are doing this for all of us and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Should you wish to bless us with your support for the podcast, you can use links below.
Copy and paste link, if needed
https://patreon.com/lewybodyrollercoasterpodcast
the GoFundMe page at
https://gofund.me/c416ecb6
Thank you for listening.
Don't forget to join our Lewy Body Roller Coaster Podcast Facebook page.
Welcome back podcast family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, welcome back y'all Folks. I just want to remind you that we're not giving medical advice. We're just sharing our open and honest experiences as we live with Lewy body dementia. Now I want to give out some shout outs, each for this week that we do every week. But first I want to tell y'all to our I want to say thank you to all our listeners. We're in 81 countries now and we're on the doorstep of 50,000 downloads, so I want to thank you all. And here's some of our donors for this week We've got Marcia Traffman, raysh Croson I hope I didn't butcher that race John Jane Hooper, anonymous Nina Berg, and thank you to all the rest that keep this thing going. We also want to remind you all that if you'd like to be a guest and share your story on the show in hopes of helping others, just contact Linda Zipuli or myself through Facebook Messenger or through our email, which is Lewy body roller coaster at gmailcom. We'd love to have you on the show to share your experience of Lewy with our audience.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I really like the way you say my last name. Maybe it's a Southern draw. I haven't said that to you in a while, but I really like it. We have an extra get. We have a third guest waiting in line. Well, pop, pop, that's all right. My dogs have barked before, so we'll. Yeah, people get it. We're not professionals here. Mine is hacked. We're professionals by new means of people now which talks about this, and I shout out to you all, while we work to get back to weekly episode, which we have gotten one off and we're going to be back. We've gotten one off every week 2024, except this week it was done. It wasn't our fault. The buzz for outside kept kicking me out, password wise, and so it did come out this week though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it did come out this week, just not, you know. You know how I'm like, you know where I want to out on Wednesdays and I think it wound up getting Thursday because I had to reset my passport like five times for some reason. Yeah, you know, poor Andrews, it's Marty girl season down there and he's doing parades and I'm like, no, as soon as you get home. You got to upload it again, but but anyway, 2024 is off to a better year. So far, minus the little one day hiccup this week.
Speaker 2:All right, folks, let's get this week started. This week we've got two good friends from our support meetings, sam who, sam, has been a great big help for me, to me in our zoom meetings. Him and Megan both step in when I, when I can't, but we've got Sam and his wife slash care partner Tracy, where Sam's calls her sweet Tracy in our support groups. Hello.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having us Good to have you all with us.
Speaker 1:We chose these two amazing people to come on this week because, as Kerry said, he's he attends. Sam attends the meetings, the Louis buddies meetings on Thursdays at 3 30 Central, and both of them attend the Monday Friday meetings, most of the time when Tracy is available and not working. And then, of course, the spouses group that Saturday is at two PM Central. Got to remember Central Kerry? Yeah, not on Central, it's you. You always get me like confused because Tracy was like is that, is that 445, central time or Eastern? And I'm like Eastern time, eastern time, my time. But anyway, yeah, we just we've been wanting to get you two on for a while. That's current.
Speaker 1:I have both, both met Sam and Tracy and they came to my husband's funeral, which, sam, I can. Sarah still talks about you hugging her and not going to cry that you're, and when you hugged me, when you hugged me, it was like Jim hugging me. You have that hug like he had, but she just talked about you hugging her and holding on to her and that really meant a lot to her. So I want to let you know that again, sam.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they both. They both came to our house when we lived there in Texas. Yeah, we surprised you. Yeah, and it was very special to meet the two of them. It really was. But, sam and Tracy, can you all introduce yourself and share with our listeners your story? You know things like where you, where you all live at and when you got the diagnosis and how hard it was to get the diagnosis.
Speaker 3:So we are from Atlanta, born and raised in Atlanta. Both of us and we had a retirement home in Delta, alabama, and we currently live in Pike Road, alabama. Our retirement home proved too difficult for Sam to get in and out of and, plus, it was in the middle of the country and very far away from medical offices, which you know. When we bought it, we thought we'll never get sick, and I think Sam, in 2017, when we bought it probably had Lew body already, but we didn't know it. Of course, we have three beautiful children and 10 awesome grand babies, and they're 10 and under, so we love them.
Speaker 2:They're at the right age.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're. All this. Everything is exciting and I love being a grandmother. I work time and that's proving to be a little bit difficult as Sam progresses and just trying to hold it all together and just, you know, be a normal couple and just live through this Louis adventure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the best you can. And how long have you all been together?
Speaker 4:Well, we've been married for 41 years, but coming up at the end of the month, we've been well. Actually, next month, we've been friends for 43 years. Wow.
Speaker 2:Congratulations. Thank you.
Speaker 4:Long time.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 4:It has been a wonderful journey and one that I have no regrets about. No, neither Good deal, and if anybody wants to talk about the secret to longevity, we don't have time here, but I would love to share with anybody. That is just curious. Yeah, all right. Well, there you go.
Speaker 1:They're going to have your name, so get lots of messages. So let's start. I'm going to start with you, tracy, and ask you, thinking back, what were some of Sam's initial symptoms that made you want to seek a doctor, or what did Sam first share with you that were his initial symptoms, because I know you both have been through the ringer to get a diagnosis.
Speaker 3:But if you could think back to the beginning what some of the symptoms were, the first time I was really wondering what was going on was right when we came home from COVID. Everybody was put into their homes and everything's kind of stopped, and he had some mannerisms that he was an over the road truck driver. So I didn't see him every day or he would be gone for days and we just really didn't work together all the time. But at that particular moment I started noticing that he had. One of the first things was his nose was always running, always running, even though he was taking Allegra or Clarentin or Zyrtec just one of the medications for sinuses. But it was always running and all of a sudden one day he had a really bad anxiety attack and was unconsolable.
Speaker 3:I called his doctor and got some medication for him and they just Sam's mother had passed away in January of 2020. So we thought maybe it's just grief. He started spending a lot of extra money and not making very good purchases. Also, he couldn't he's always been able to just go out and build something and he was having trouble finishing simple task that he was doing. Just he would measure something and measure just many, many times. And I'm thinking something is not right with his brain. So we went and saw psychiatrist and there began our journey.
Speaker 1:Now Tracy is in the nursing field, so you had that going for you, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm in my car actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:In the medical field, but yeah, uh-huh.
Speaker 2:Sam Tracy just told us the first symptoms that she noticed that you had, but can you share with our listeners what your main symptoms were that made you actually talk to Tracy before the first doctor appointment? Maybe one Tracy didn't talk about and how was it opening up to her about things that you felt weren't right?
Speaker 4:Well, you know, it's always easy to talk about. Tracy Always has been for the most part I mean very slight percentage of time that we didn't see eye to eye. But those times were forgiven and forgotten and we came to an understanding of what was proper in that scenario. But I actually didn't go to Tracy with concerns. Tracy came to me one day and after something major had happened and I didn't resolve the situation very easily and she came to me and shared that she had been doing some research for several months on things that she had noticed that I was doing, and then certain things that I was doing very well, I wasn't doing anymore. And so you know, being a being over the road truck driver, there's a very high expectation that that drivers drive with a great element of safety in mind. That's the number one thing.
Speaker 4:And in 2017, I had my first accident in years and years and years. And then I had another accident in 2018, and both of those were in my personal truck, my long truck, and then December of 2019. Oh no, september, september or October I had a wreck in my big truck that was just out of the blue, and so, anyhow, when that happened, it just started. You know, I started wondering you know what's gotten into me? And so then, a few months after, mom died and I started having those panic attacks, it just made me want to stay home. I didn't want to get out of the house, I didn't want to do anything, I didn't want to have anything to do with anybody. Of all my life I've never met a stranger. And all of a sudden I don't want to talk to anybody. I just wanted to shut down and not be very sociable.
Speaker 3:So that was very different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Sam, I want to tell you, if you're anything like I am, you're going to crash after we get through the recording today. It always makes me crash, I just it wears me out brainwires.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and don't stress it up. You know you don't remember what you're saying because it's, you know, just trying to recall, like all those things that happened in the very beginning. And Kerry's right, because remember, when he wasn't, he'd sleep in for like 36 hours. He twisted my arm and then making me record and then he crashed. So, but there's Tracy and Sam are still on their way back to Montgomery, so, tracy, he may crash for you on your last leg of your leg of your two. Yeah, yeah, so it's all good. So this one is for either of you and I guess Tracy, maybe you, because it's you you've been to. You know where I'm back trying to get him a diagnosis. So can you share what the diagnosis process is like? What did what doctor did you go to first and how long did it take you to get a diagnosis? I know you fired a few, I believe, along the way, or, yes, you know, I'm told he had it, didn't have it, had it. You know, like we've heard many, many times, Right.
Speaker 3:First doctor we took Sam to was a psychiatrist recommended by our PCP at the time and we walked out of there and they told they told me that he had schizophrenia and bipolar and I was like what that? That is just absurd. You know, someone doesn't get to be 63 or whatever Sam was at the time and have schizophrenia or bipolar disease. They didn't know him prior. So the next step was another physician that was a neuropsychiatrist and he did say he thought that Sam had a low body. Unfortunately we did have to change doctors because our insurance did not cover him and the bills were quite steep and I knew that we were going to be having lots of because all the tests that he was ordering we were going to have a lot of medical expense. So then we went to another neurologist. That didn't go well, then another psychiatrist and he actually referred us to Emory Brain Center where we started going.
Speaker 3:I think that was year one and a half. We've been dealing with this for a year and a half and he sees a neurologist there at Emory Brain Center. He's on his second neurologist there. He actually got Sam has a lot of atypical movement and so he got shifted to a movement neurologist. So he's not actually in the low body program but because he has a lot of, and he fell and had a head injury so that kind of messed things up a little bit. But we have a psychiatrist there at Emory. That is stellar. And the person who actually said yes, he has Lewy Body Dementia was a forensic pathologist I'm sorry, psychologist and he did a four hour test. Sam has had several of those, but he did one that was very different and he came to the conclusion that yes, sam does have Lewy Body, and that was in January of last year. So we've only had the Lewy Body Diagnosis for one year out of or I remember when Sam fell and hurt himself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was, that was bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it really was, yeah, but it but you as it with me and I've told the stories. I thought Jim had a little body from all my research. You know, like we know our loved ones and there's spouses you know better than anybody and I was like I think it's awesome. You know, like I don't know, many times we have people on that similar stories, right, curry what words. You know definitely the loved one does the research and then it's just a matter of getting all the doctors to that happens a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 3:For 10 minutes or less and they cannot make a judgment.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That amount of time.
Speaker 2:my opinion and they can't exactly right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but did you guys do the skin biopsy? I don't remember.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we did this in one. We were actually referred to neurologist outside of the Army brain center. We went, I went to see him for several months and and he was just up in arms, he couldn't, couldn't figure it out and and he he wasn't comfortable with it. It wasn't comfortable to clear in the diagnosis because that person is so different than a lewy body patient. And so after another couple of visits with him and I just felt like he was, he was about ready to kick us to the curb I asked him if, if, if, he could do the same one biopsy for us and just kind of kind of give us some closure.
Speaker 4:Well, he did the same one biopsy and my results came back negative or lewy body dementia.
Speaker 4:But in those, in those follow up sessions to that, he did say that there there might be some indications that would justify a lewy body diagnosis, but it because I presented so different it would, he wouldn't be willing to go that far and actually make it an official, you know, probable lewy body diagnosis. And so we went back to the Emory brain center and my psychiatrist said that there was, that there was a particular forensic psychologist that he wanted me to go see, and so we set that up and and that's that's what Tracy was talking about in Mendeca where he did the. He did the testing in like October, november and then he told us it would be it would be months or weeks or months before he, before he submitted his report, and that was. That was in January, when he submitted the report declaring that he was diagnosing me with lewy body dementia and from there that that gave us a great deal of closure and it really helped, helped me to to accept it more.
Speaker 4:Well, I can't really say that I was in denial, it was more an element of confusion. Well, if it's not lewy body, then what is it? Can? Can we figure out if it's something else? So, for for him to give us that diagnosis and I say he gave us the diagnosis because it it, it really is an us thing, so it's, it's.
Speaker 4:It's it's where we we, we both have to share the burden, and Yama Masui Tracy does it so gracefully and she's very transparent with me and she tells me, she tells me the real stuff that's going on, like I think it was yesterday.
Speaker 4:She said I got to have a vacation and y'all, she's been out of work. Can I share that? Sure, she's been out of work now for a couple of weeks, but we've had some major things come up in our home In Pike Road and also with the property that, the cabin that we sold. We've had some things come up with it that are kind of ugly and it's just it's going to be a steep uphill climb to resolve all that. And that brings up the frustration for me is because we used to share these burdens together. We used to be able to resolve them and process them and we knew the people that we need to talk to to help us get through it and it. You know, it's just not that way now and it's it's frustrating for me because I know I used to be able to help, but I can't help.
Speaker 2:Anyone is frustrating, so you know y'all was talking about how hard it was to get a diagnosis. I know every doctor's appointment Linda and I went to, we would think, okay, this is the one they're going to tell us what's wrong with me. And they'd say, well, we can't find anything wrong with you, you know, can't find anything wrong with your heart, can't find anything with your lungs, can't find anything wrong with your brain. But you got to have a tumor in your brain, you know, and it's just really stressful. And to me it was a relief to get a diagnosis and to finally find out what was wrong with me. I knew something was wrong, I just didn't, couldn't put a name to it. So I know how hard it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I just want to like. When you were talking, sam, telling your story, I wrote down a word that you said that just screamed at me is the doctor said you don't present like a typical Lewy body patient. There's no such thing as a typical Lewy body patient.
Speaker 2:There's no such thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the doctors have to get that. You know you don't fit into this nice little checkbox of symptoms. You know it's just nobody's I don't know if anybody in all of our support groups there's no two people like with symptoms.
Speaker 2:You know, and it's here some symptoms, but we all have different symptoms also. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:You know that. We got that. We got that spreadsheet. I think that talks about our, our symptoms and what it has, what they don't have, and it's. It's just all over the place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, what Sam is talking about is in our support group or I think even on some of the Facebook pages we had, if anybody wanted to share symptoms. Yeah, share what the symptoms were. And yeah, it's, it is all over the place. So it's funny you bring up support groups, because that's my next question for you, sam. So in our support groups and and I really appreciate you helping curry with the Thursday meetings, if you can't do it, end of Monday Friday.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you were last year was I didn't make as many of those as I probably should have, but I appreciate everybody that jumped in during that time. But you are such a positive force in our group meetings, like Sam's the one, it's like somebody else say I can't figure out, and he's like hit the three dots on the right, like he'll talk them through the computer issues, and you always have something nice to say to people and ask everyone how they are again helping computer and phone issues. So we both thank you for all that. But can you share why you feel it's important to attend support meetings for those with LBD and their caregivers and what it is that you get out of the meetings, both the Thursday meetings and the mixed group meetings on Monday Fridays?
Speaker 4:Oh, that is so easy. Back when I first started attending the zooms, the main reason I wanted to was because you know Tracy had told me so much about about what my symptoms were, and but there was there was not much information out there about what to expect. You know, further down the road for me is is there? Is there anywhere that I can get some clarity on what kind of life I could expect?
Speaker 4:So early on, as I started to understand how everybody else was living and how everyone else seemed to have a place that they fit into the group, whether it be the jokester, whether it be the dog owner, just whoever it was it was very easy for me to come to realize that I needed to have a purpose and purpose. You know, all my life I had purpose. I had a servant mentality. I had a helpful attitude. When I encountered somebody that needed help, we just helped them and sometimes it was more of a blessing to be a blessing than them. We were blessed more to help someone than the blessing that we passed on to them by helping them.
Speaker 4:So I came to understand how to help Currie and you, linda, in the zones. But I just like that. I can retain that part and the reason I'm able to retain it is just it's through repetitiveness, doing the same thing over and over. But I mean, even then, there are still days that I can't remember about those three little thoughts you talked about. I just you know, but most of the time there's somebody else in our caregiver and patient support groups. There's usually somebody in there that can pick up the ball where I drop it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean that's and we've talked about it on here before is it's it's not mine and Currie support group, it's like everybody's support group and you know, sometimes I got to run out to a doctor's appointment, or Currie needs to zip off and we don't always have to even be on screen or I have to sleep through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so it's it, and it is well. Everybody should help other people, because that's I think, that's why we were put here on Earth.
Speaker 2:And it is a really good job at helping people. I mean, I really appreciate it, yeah, and how?
Speaker 1:about you, Tracy? What are your thoughts on attending the support meetings?
Speaker 3:I loved doing it in the beginning and of course that's how you and I met and I really did get a lot from them. I kind of changed a little bit when spouses started dying. That was very hard on me and also the group kind of started changing a little bit and it wasn't as tight knit group. So I kind of stepped back from that and I plan to go back and yeah, you're talking.
Speaker 1:She's talking about the, the Saturday group, possibly. Yeah, sadly it's.
Speaker 3:It's become bigger, so it's well, it's hard to stay tight knit, but it's right, but as we have grown, yeah, and I do better with small groups of people and sharing those intimate things that we would talk about, so it's it's. It's a great idea. I think that they're doing a great job helping spouses.
Speaker 1:I just needed something different, so I'm getting Well, I'm going to, I'm going to go back in the 10-1 with Tracy soon, so we'll hold each other's hands virtually. But what are, what are your? What are your thoughts on the Monday, Friday Cause? I know you tried it.
Speaker 3:I love them. I I love the Monday Friday group. I get a lot from them. Not only do I get to hear what their Lewy body patients are feeling going through, I also get to hear what did we hear? She's still there, okay, sorry. I get to hear from the Lewy body patients are going through, but also what the spouses are going through, and you know we're all going through typically the same thing. Many times I've I have been blessed to have Linda Curry's Linda phone number and I've called her and you know said help Cause sometimes that that Sam does other people don't do or you know, don't don't have a problem with, but it's just. It's just like Curry says, if you meet one Lewy body patient, you've met one Lewy body patient and that is so true.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but it's, even though we're well we were well we're experiencing Lewy differently, we still speak the same language. That's why it's, you know, many of us in the support groups, the zoom meetings, have each other's private phone numbers and you know, just reach out and we need to reach out and that's, I think that's one of the powerful things that has happened with with the groups, cause it really it is a Lewy family, you know, it just becomes a family who we speak the same language, you know, even if it might be different, a different symptom. So, on a as you both, both of this, it's up to you. Well, you probably both want to weigh you. So, back in 2022, we all met for the first time when Jim and I were on our well, yeah, I think, one of our maiden voyages with the RV trip, and then again when I made it to Curry's um and you both came to Texas and surprised him Um. The first time I met Sam and Tracy. We met at a campground somewhere I don't remember Was it near Montgomery.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know I've seen Tracy and we talked. You know, and I we hugged for like a really, really long time. I just didn't want to let you go cause you were to like one. You were the first caregiver I met. Lewy caregiver I met in person, so can you both share how powerful it is to meet somebody in the support group in person?
Speaker 3:That meeting with you, linda, was very monumental for me. Um, I had been going through that for two years and it just to hug you and to meet you and Jim, it just meant the world to me and Sam and we, if you remember. But it was really late and it was all these things that had happened that day that probably we shouldn't have met, that we did and we made it on purpose and it was just very heartfelt, yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it was the same with us. We got there late because one of the brake lights went out on the one the mini Cooper we were pulling, and my friend Manny thought he could fix it and Jim was like we're not, we can't drive it without both brake lights. And then that just wound up. I couldn't forget where it happened. I think I drove it, but the brake lights wouldn't work if we were hooked up to the RV, so we wound up driving the vehicle separately. So we got there like five hours later than we expected to get there. Um, yeah, but that was yeah. That was pretty powerful. How about you, sam?
Speaker 4:Oh, boy, that that I remember. That afternoon it kept. It kept being. You know, a few hours later, a few hours later, a few hours later, and um, so I was, I was really starting to feel sad for Tracy because we had to be home that night back in Atlanta and and I knew Tracy didn't like to drive at night A great deal but, um, but she really, she really rose to the occasion with, as far as patients, the measure of patients that she had with the situation, um, that that made a profound um, um, it made a, I made a profound statement of her dedication to making this happen.
Speaker 4:I don't like to talk about myself, I'm not crazy to do that but she was willing to make this happen because I needed to have it to happen and it was when we actually got to where y'all had parked and we got to meet y'all. That's when I realized she needed this as bad as she felt like I needed this. But she didn't convey that in the previous hours in trying to make it happen for me. But just connecting with you, linda, on that personal level, seeing how you manage with Jim and thankfully he's our good friend now, but many helping with all that and seeing just how you went about the next few hours and witnessing it in person.
Speaker 4:Words don't do it justice. So, meeting Jim obviously the first Louis patient I met it was surreal and I don't know if it was because of the events of the afternoon. And then, all of a sudden, it's real, and it's right here and it's right now and, like you said a while ago, being able to give a bear hug to a man that had a Louis body even before my diagnosis. There was such a connection and our chemistry just clicked.
Speaker 1:Yes, I have a lot of pictures of that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I mean I could engage him in conversation that he understood. He was very patient with me, while having difficulty finding words, and that just astounded me. You know the people that I had been talking to over the previous year or two. When I would pause to try to find words, they would just start talking and that was very frustrating for me. But, jim, oh my goodness, you've shared and we experienced firsthand the gentle nature of how he was and his dealings with people. Oh my goodness, it was profound. But Tracy and I discussed that meetup and it should only last a short while because we had, I think, and we already planned the trip to Texas at that point with the producers?
Speaker 1:I don't think so. I think that was like a less minute surprise thing.
Speaker 4:Oh okay, but anyhow, we were needing to get away from Montgomery area and get back to Atlanta. That wasn't meant to be, though, so we drove into the wee hours of the morning to get back home, and you know the power that is greater than all of us is what God has through that was. You know that was quite an ordeal to get home, but it was worth it, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then.
Speaker 1:Well, now we posted a really funny picture of you guys were checking something and I don't even I still don't know to this day know what it is. It was something above like a speaker or something, and I think it was Manny which reached up and then Sam was next reaching and then Jim reached. I'm like I gotta get it, reach for it, and I'm like I gotta get a picture of this. And I posted on the support groups like captioned this because it was just, but there were so many it's like we've known you guys forever and same with Curry, you know and so many heartwarming moments and laughter and it was just yeah, and then as much to us as it meant to you guys, I just want you to know that.
Speaker 1:And then the backstory is with Jim and I finally made it to Curry's we. I had been in touch with Tracy and said, hey, can you guys come out and just show up, like a day or so after we got there. So Sam got to meet and Sam and Tracy got to meet when Curry and his wife Linda and that was pretty amazing also because Curry's like what do you know? They walked to the door- and he's a great.
Speaker 2:I've got to tell you all that my wife and I well, just like Sam Jim was the first person I had met in person with Louis body and Sam Sam was the second and I just can't tell you the feeling that comes over you when you meet someone else with the same disease as what you've got and my wife needed you two girls there too, and I really appreciate that. But it, like Sam said, it's an unreal feeling when you meet someone else but the same problem you've got.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and your wife has. Curry's wife is very quiet.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:She's just a quiet person, but I know we were talking and talking and talking and she just totally open. She definitely needed it. We all need to connect with other caregivers that are doing this, helping their loved ones, and it's if you can you know you're more than welcome for the listeners to post on either of our Facebook pages like hey, I'm from Montgomery, Alabama anybody else in the area and try to meet up with people, Because that's been happening in amongst our support groups as well, and we try to, as much as we can remember, to ask people to share about the support meetings and meeting up with people, because it is very, very powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've got four people that live over around. Well, they're in North Carolina I can't think of the name of the town, but anyway, they've all been living there and they've just discovered how close they are. So they've been meeting like once a week to have breakfast or dinner, whatever. It is coffee and it does. It really is just something like you can't explain, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. We're going to stop here for now and pick up with part two with Sam and Tracy next week.
Speaker 2:And please remember, we want all of you to be a part of our podcast series and share your thoughts on topics you want to hear about. We provide our email address below in the episode description, so please feel free to send us an email with topics you want to hear about or you want us to explore. We'd love to hear your feedback.
Speaker 1:And our email is Lewie Body Roller Coaster Gmailcom. Or you can Facebook Messenger with our journey with Lewie Body Page or our Lewie Body Roller Coaster Page, because we really can't thank everybody enough and remember we're doing this podcast for all of us and we appreciate that you tune in each week.
Speaker 2:Oaks. As always, we will continue to post the link for the podcast each week for you in our Facebook group our journey with Lewie Body Dementia and our Lewie Body Roller Coaster Podcast Group page, as well as many other groups. So thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1:Until next week. This is Linda.
Speaker 2:And Curry shining off.