(CNN) -- Life was good for Kenny Sparks. A handsome man with a big smile, he was well-known in his town of Little Compton, Rhode Island. He had a loving wife, two beautiful, college-age children and was the co-owner of a multimillion-dollar contracting business. At 49 he had it all. But then he began to change. At first the family thought Kenny had Alzheimer's disease; he had all the signs. But they got a diagnosis that turned out to be more devastating. Kenny has a condition known as frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. When doctors told Kenny's wife, Cheryl, she was relieved. "I was thankful it wasn't Alzheimer's," she said. "Clearly, what did I know?"
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Frontotemporal dementia affects part of brain responsible for personality, memory, reasoning
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250,000 people in the United States have it, representing 10-20 percent of dementia cases
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The condition is often misdiagnosed, resulting in wrong medications
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Hope on the horizon as researchers target the proteins that accumulate in the brain cells
Cheryl
@placeholder thought it was stress, that the pressure of work was getting to him.
Cheryl
But it was his inability to communicate that finally pushed @placeholder into action.
FTD
Doctors told her, @placeholder would rob Kenny of his personality, his speech and eventually his life.
Frontotemporal
@placeholder dementia is an umbrella term for a group of degenerative disorders that damage the cells in the temporal and/or frontal lobes of the brain.
Alzheimer
"Many patients take on symptoms of a stroke and, of course, @placeholder's or even severe depression and are misdiagnosed, which can be dangerous because many of the medications used for these conditions can make FTD worse," said Grossman.
Cheryl
He has become progressively more dependent on @placeholder, who quit her job to be with him 24/7.
Cheryl
Although Kenny goes with a caretaker several times a week to give @placeholder a break, keeping up with him can be exhausting.