My DH has just started experiencing very real hallucinations and is showing a disconnect in motor skills ie if a fly is buzzing around him he sits and shakes his hand. I have read the excellent comments on the changes you have experienced. When our loved one shows a new step downward is this progression downward more rapid, or is each person different? Please forgive me if this is too obvious a question.
My wife M was having nighttime hallucinations in 2002 when she was first diagnosed with AD. She was seeing people walking around outside our bedroom in pitch black darkness. She saw people standing by the bed in our bed room. Just generic people, no one in particular. She would wake me up and say there were prowlers there. I would turn on the bedside light and they would go away and she would return to sleep.
Her doctor prescribed a minimum dosage of Seroquel (25 mg) and that shut off the hallucinations like a switch. She presently takes Aricept, Namenda, Paxil and Seroquel and is in stage 6+.
Don't know anything about hallucinations, but I'll try to answer your questions about rapid downward progression.
I think it depends. Some of it depends on what you are, or are not, paying attention to. Some of it depends on what kind of dementia your LO has. And a lot of it is simply that the various lists of Stages leave out a lot of stuff that we could us to tell us where our LOs really are in the disease.
The result is that they have a symptom that is clearly part of a new stage, and we go and look at what that stage is all about, and suddenly realize that they are beginning to do some of a lot of the other symptoms. Did it happen suddenly? Or did it just become obvious suddenly? I don't know.
Neurologist diagnosed 2 strokes and early AD. The hallucinations seem to be sudden but the loss of motor skills has been gradual. I will see the MD in the next two weeks but right now I'm just sad. The above two responses answer my question. In 2002? That shows me we still have a long downward journey ahead of us. Your responses help me face the reality of these dementias.
The main motto of Alzheimer's Disease is - "When you've seen ONE person with Alzheimer's Disease, you've seen ONE person with Alzheimer's Disease", meaning that the disease affects everyone differently, and everyone has different symptoms at different times. No one progresses at the same rate or experiences every symptom in every stage.
But in your husband's case, as C said, medication can make a big difference. Have you called the doctor to tell him about them? He may be able to prescribe something right away, rather than making you wait two weeks until you see him.
You're entitled to feel sad. We all do. We are here for hugs and support.
Yes, I'm new. I discovered this website just recently. It's most helpful as I had become used to handling DH's stroke disability but the AD diagnosis is new to us. Right now DH's hallucinations aren't scaring him and are infrequent, but I guess I had better call his MD. Maybe I should ask for something for me! This has the possibility creating a good depression.
My husband Dale had hallucinations that someone was trying to break into the house. He said "but when I showed them my gun they ran away". Then he told me that some men were trying to pry open our garage door with pry bars and I went out on the porch and showed them my gun and they too ran away. Well I don't have to tell you that scared me senseless. I asked my husband where they were trying to break in and he said "there, right there" I looked and what was an old paint mark on the cement was what he thought was evidence that someone was trying to break in the garage. There was no evidence not even the dust on the rubber stopper on the bottom of the door was disturbed. Well I can tell you the gun is no longer in the house and the hallucinations stopped. One cannot say if it was his need to protect his domain or what?
OMG. My DH gave his rifle to our gson for his b'day last year plus all the shells, the cleaning rod, etc. The boy was thrilled with it. (His dad makes sure he is well educated on the care and use of the gun.) I was thrilled to see it go. There's never been an issue with it here, but I sure wouldn't want to go through what Jenene56 went through.
We have a friend who's wife is mentally ill. He has been a hunter all of his life but one day his wife whome he has cared for for over 30 years told him she was going to get a gun and kill him. Those guns were out of that house very quickly. He told me she's never been violent but with her particular illness, one never knows.
Before he was released for the hospital (med changes and Dx), I had to have the guns and van gone from the house. Even so, the 2nd time he had to go back in, by ambulance, for a suspected TIA, I had to tell them he would be resistant to going, and was asked if there were any weapons available. I said "No., the watched one of the emergency personnel remove a table knife and scissors from the dining table and put them in the kitchen, while the others were getting him up off the floor and onto the gurney. Never occurred to me that they werepotential weapons.
Yep, here we go..I gave G's handgun (from our safe) to our son..on the sly..some time ago. Last night G called our son and asked if he knew where the gun was as I had forgotten to get rid of the bullets too, and it was obvious the gun had been taken. Forgot about the bloody bullets. Our son managed to finesse his way thrugh the conversation, and I haven't heard another word, but I know the thought is still there. He has said time and again that he will not live to be a burden..sound familiar? He is such a gun person, I can't imagine he would consider other methods. The whole thing stinks.
Kathi37, my husband always said the same thing about Alzheimers and being a burden, he would kill himself. Our PCP made an interesting comment though that really helped. He told me that usually the disease in some way protects the person from themselves.
I don't know how true a statement that is, but he never tried to do anything to end his life after diagnosis. I did get the guns out of the house thought just in case.
I think if it was going to happen, it would happen very early on. But most of our LOs were in denial early on and even the ones that weren't didn't know what would happen in the late stages of the disease. And that is where most of the protection is.
By the time they would consider themselves a burden, there isn't much they can manage to do to themselves. And that is where the rest of the protection is.
My DH also hallucinates. The night before I woke up and he was talking up a storm. I could only understand a few words because he just garbled most of the time. This is the first time he just kept on and on. This went an all day too. His voice was very shaky and he spoke in his native thong and in English. Today he is almost his old selve again. He did it again in the morning but stopped it later in the day. It threw me for a loop.