Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. We also want to bring awareness of Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) in young adults in hopes that others will be aware that when an individual starts to have a personality change and shows signs of a possible mental illness that neurological issues should be explored.
Due to the aphasia caused by the FTD, Justin cannot communicate his own story. It is our desire to give God all the glory for His grace that is proving to be sufficent for each trial and very step of this journey.
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor 4:16-18
Justin Allen Davenport was born on September 13, 1983 to Wesley and Robin Davenport at Copper Basin Hospital in Copperhill, TN. He weighed in at 9lbs and 3 ozs and was 21 inches long. We used to say that Justin came out of the womb talking. He walked at 12 months old and rode a bicycle at around 3-4 years old. He always loved to be outside and could always be found wearing his jeans and boots, because he did not like to get his legs scratched up. His favorite story was the Gingerbread Man and he loved his 'petting" blanket as he called it.
Justin started Head Start at nearly 4 years old due to his birthday being in September. He excelled all through school and hardly ever cracked a book at home. Other things were more important, like hunting, fishing, riding motorcycles, playing baseball and hanging out with his buddies. He always loved all of our pets. Among his favorites were Digger, Butch, Dixie, and Raven.
Justin has always had a very strong work ethic. He started his first job on the summer JTPA program when he was 14 years old. He worked that summer with the janitor at Blue Ridge Elementary School. He earned enough money that summer to buy his own motorcycle. Justin continued to work after school and during the summers all through high school. Some of his jobs were a bag boy at IGA, attendant at Amoco North, lawn maintenance jobs, and construction jobs. Justin bought his own vehicles and always paid his own insurance.
Justin met the love of his life, Jennifer Bone Davenport, and was married in June 2005. Justin and Jennifer became the parents of Haley Grace Davenport in December, 2005 and Ruthie Mae Davenport in March, 2007. Justin and Jennifer worked very hard to provide for their family and enjoyed many wonderful family activities together.
Justin worked in construction, truck driving, and limestone mining. He also had a side lawn maintenance business along the way. He started attending Dalton State College and working toward a degree in business. Math was always Justin's strength. He continued his beloved hobbies of deer and turkey hunting. He fished some and even took a trip out to Jackson Hole Wyoming with his buddies to do some fly fishing. He competed in mine rescue competitions at a national level in Las Vegas and in Kentucky.
Around 2014-2015, we begin to notice some changes in Justin. He began to be distant. We attributed this to his very busy schedule of working fulltime in the mines, going to school at Dalton State, having a side mowing business, assisting with building a new home for his family, and all that goes into being a husband and father. Whew! As time went on, his wife began to notice that he was not talking very much and he would disappear for periods of time. While buidling the family home, lots of family issues began to surface. Justin continued to distance himself from others and he started exhibiting some anger that we had never seen before. Justin had always been a very passive person and very easy to get along with. Several people noticed that Justin was not talking very much. As time progressed, marital issues continued to surface and in the summer of 2016, Justin and his wife separated. This triggered more aggression and very unusual behaviors. Justin was fired from 2 jobs for his aggressive behaviors, which is something he had never experienced.
To make a very long and painful story short, Justin was arrested 4 times, 10-13ed to 2 different stabilization units, spent 9 months in jail (3 in an isolation cell), and finally 10-13ed to Georgia Regional Hosptial in December 2017. During this timeframe, he was misdiagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Schizo-affective Disorder. It was on the forensic unit at GA Regional Hospital where his amazing psychiatrist recognized that Justin was not experiencing schizophrenia, but that he appeared to have a brain disease of some kind. His doctor's suspicions were verified when he had a CT Scan and MRI in April, 2018. The outcome was brain atrophy. The diagnosis was some sort of FTD (frontotemporal degeneration).
Today, Justin remains on the forensic unit at Ga Regional Hosptial where he is receiving excellent care. The next step is to transition to a skilled nursing facility. There are huge barriers to this transition due to his age. Facilities who specialize in dementia are private pay starting at 4k per month. Facilities who accpet Medicaid and Medicare tell us that they cannot provide the support that Justin needs due to his age. God continues to ensure that Justin's needs are met at GA Regional Psychiatric Hospital where the amazing staff is providing excellent care and implementing theraputic services and a high staff ratio that Justin would not receive in a skilled nursing facility. He gets to go outside to walk and play basketball as much as he wants. He also goes to the gym every week to play basketball, ping pong, and throw the friesbee.
Update as of 9/7/20, Justin has been home with his father and me for 1 year and receives hospice services. He is absolutely precious.
We are filled with gratitude for the outcome of Justin’s brain donation. FTD was confirmed and it was found that it was sporadic and not genetic. That is wonderful news for our family. Wesley and I called Dr. Dickson. He shared that because of Justin’s young age, this forces them to look more closely at FTD starting young age. Dr. Dickson expressed that he was very troubled that Justin was seen as a criminal because he had a brain disease. This means more attention to young on-set dementia. Our prayer for purpose and meaning in the pain has been answered🙌.
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