Recently my husband, who has been diagnosed with PPA is now diagnosed with Alzheimer (am not sure if that is "instead of" or just it) which is very similar anyway. I am curious if any of you have any experience with "delusions". He has been getting up a few hours after going to sleep, and starting to get ready to go by bathing and putting on clean underwear and waking me up to get him ready. When I ask "why" he says that the man told him he has to go (where, I'm not sure.....he needs to be ready for a bus at 7am for a morning day care bus 3 days a week) The only answer I get about the man is "I know him very well" (and annoyed at for doubting this fact) This only happens lately and not consistently. One night he asked me if I talked to the people, who were probably in the other room. Is this type of thing shared by any of you nice people? This is not a daytime occurence.....yet!
Marcia, My DH is mid-late stage 6, and has shown signs of delusions from early on too. i take it with a stroke of fun and ask him particular stuff about his 'friends'. he has very specific details about it all and its quite spooky. i wrote in another topic we have a 'guy' named MrBullie, in the hall mirror..:) of course its him but he doesnt recognize himself so he talks and laughs and goes on and on in the mirror with this guy. it gives him pleasure and me too. its harmless and nothing comes of it to say its his own reflection. he has gray hair now and never did while in his right mind he was a stickler for his appearances and always looked quite young for his age. he frequently talks to the statues around the house as well and our dogs and anything else that catches his fancy. since joining this forum, i have suspected he may have some cross of lewy body with AD with all the symptoms i see but who knows or cares at this juncture? i love him with all his idiosyncrosies quirky behaviour and 'friends' just like he is. as long as the delusions are harmless and give him smiles i wont try to treat any of it for now. he also smiles and nods his head while sleeping and acts likes hes having conversations...i hope they are there for him always and help keep him happy - the -' i know this man' may be him talking of the reflection of himself just not visually connecting the dots?? make it easy for him and go with the flow, you will be much less stressed over it all-Divvi
Oh, yes, my husband has delusions all the time - the most constant, a bit lessened at the moment, is that he is supposed to go to CalTech, his alma mater, to get a big award (a million dollars awarded to a promising young mathematician; he's 84) and we are going to have a reception afterwards here. So are we getting ready for the reception? When do we leave to drive there? (we're on the east coast!) Like Divvi, I distract, I prevaricate.. he forgets about it for the moment.
Recently, 'the lady in the mirror' has been added to our family. I found out this morning that she is only in the bathroom mirror. I steered her back to the living room, passing a smaller hallway mirror. I asked her who was in the mirror. She looked at me as though I were an idiot and said, "that's me". We returned to the bathroom (about 15 feet) and the reflection was "the lady", a separate entity. "The lady looks a lot like me, but I am not as ugly", DW said. (Most of her hair is gone due to the chemotheraphy). There are conversations and the lady in the mirror seems to like me, so I don't see any problem, other than she will stand there, looking or nodding in agreement with the lady in the mirror for what seems like a long time to stand in one place. It makes her tired. I've tried to engage her in activities, but she can't really do anything. Her short term memory is literally 30-45 seconds. (i.e. taking an empty glass from the living room to the kitchen counter will result in her bringing the glass back (often with something else from kitchen counter) and setting it down in the living room, somewhere). This is not particularly frustrating for her, as she has no recollection that it happens all the time, or 45 seconds ago. These types of behaviors were frustrating to me, but now I accept everything. If I react or say anything like "why are you...", she comes back with "why are you mad?". If there is ever a disagreement, I am going to ask, "what does the lady in the mirror say?".
Claude has been having delusions for some time. Sometimes he talks to these people, other times they talk to him. A couple of times, he has become quite agitated when these people tell him something or tell him to do something.
I just agree with him and then try to focus him on something else. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Other times, he "sees" people and then will tell me "that guy sitting in the recliner said or did....".
Most of the time tho, he just sits and stares into space. I think I prefer the delusions (at least the kind he has now) as he is active and talking, rather than staring into space.
Delusions were the first sign that something was not right with my husband. He had terrible delusions of neighbours torturing & killing him. He was diagnosised as late onset of schizophrenia, he was a month off 65yrs & had just retired. They were terrible days he would go outside hear the voices & run back in terrified wanting to ring the police. That was 4yrs ago, it took 15 months to be diagnoised as vascular dementia.These days thank goodnes with help of medication they are only trying to take our roof off or pull out his plants. My Dad of 94yrs has AD he is now in a dementia ward but he was hearing & seeing things before he went in which was very hard on my Mum. Dad would ring me in the early hours of the morning saying things like someone was in their kitchen or Mum wasn't Mum. At least I could help Mum as my husband had delusions before my Dad though Dad had dementia before my husband
Patricia - I think you're new here. Welcome to the group. I'll place a note on the Welcome New Members topic so that others will know you're a part of us. If you get a chance, please tell us a little more about you and your husband. I'm glad that you're husband's delusions are less frightening to him. My husband started to have delusions last year, which was several years after his other confusion/memory symptoms became noticeable.
One of the members on the "other" site just posted about the regions of the brain associated with delusions. I'm quoting her post here:
The kinds of psychiatric symptoms our ADLOs have seem to vary based on where they've experienced brain damage. No surprise, right? But this is one of the few writeups I've seen that specifies which areas of brain damage cause the most common delusions that many of us will immediately recognize.
And for anyone who wonders if their LO's "hidden" personality is suddenly emerging, this demonstrates yet again that the answer is emphatically NO. As always, it's the brain damage caused by the disease that produces these symptoms:
People who have false beliefs about the facts related to their own lives - damage in the right dorsolateral prefontal cortex
theft delusions - damage in the right medial posterior parietal region, also local cortical damage
Unable to recognize self in mirror - right hemisphere dysfunction
Delusional beliefs that soft toys are real - a common cerebral blood flow defect in right frontoparietal cortex and severe visuoperceptual processing deficits
More for anyone who's interested (it's pretty technical): http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/184/3/193
I did look up the paper she referenced, and read it, and it's quite interesting.
Now, you may have heard the homily "Publish or perish" when it comes to science. One of the things that's been happening in the world of scientific publications is an increasing emphasis on how many other papers reference one of yours. You not only have to publish, but the significance of your work has to be shown by how many other scientists have read it and cite it in their own.
So, some journals will not only have the abstract and even the full paper on the web, but will also list the papers that have cited it. The above article has been referenced by a very recent paper. That looked interesting, too (see the abstract below), so I fired off an email asking for a copy. The lead author responded in less than an hour, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.
P. D. Bruen, W. J. McGeown, M. F. Shanks, and A. Venneri Neuroanatomical correlates of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease Brain, September 1, 2008; 131(9): 2455 - 2463.
Alzheimer’s disease research has largely concentrated on the study of cognitive decline, but the associated behavioural and neuropsychiatric symptoms are of equal importance in the clinical profile of the disease. There is emerging evidence that regional differences in brain atrophy may align with variant disease presentations. The objective of this study was to identify the regions of decreased grey matter (GM) volume which were associated with specific neuropsychiatric behaviours in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease.Voxel-based morphometry was used to correlate GM derived fromT1-weighted MRI images of 31 patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease and specific neuropsychiatric symptoms and behaviours measured by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Delusions were associated with decreased GM density in the left frontal lobe, in the right frontoparietal cortex and in the left claustrum. Apathy was associated with GM density loss in the anterior cingulate and frontal cortex bilaterally, the head of the left caudate nucleus and in bilateral putamen. Agitation was associated with decreased GM values in the left insula, and in anterior cingulate cortex bilaterally. Neuropsychiatric symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease seem to associate with neurodegeneration of specific neural networks supporting personal memory, reality monitoring, processing of reward, interoceptive sensations and subjective emotional experience. The study of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease using voxel-based morphometry and other imaging modalities may further the understanding of the neural structures that mediate the genesis of abnormal behaviours.
my husband has woke me up because he said the devil was standing in our door way to our bedroom and i told him no there isn't anyone there. He got up and ran him out. He also woke serveral weeks ago saying he heard someone and was so scared, I had to go through the house and let him know no one was in there.
Thanks you all for sharing your experiences....delusions were frightening at first, but what wasn't with this AD. It certainly makes some days interesting! Today was especially fun, although has nothing to do with delusions. I came home in the snow storm to find a strange car in my driveway already covered with snow. A Hungarian lady who speaks little English was with my LO so after interpreting two inarticulate people It seems a "VERY nice well-dressed young man wearing cologne" said his car wasn't working and he was "hurt" and asked if he could park in our driveway. He was so nice that my husband said "Yes" and I almost had a new mustang. The police towed it & impounded it. It had an expired registration belonging to an unlocatable 23 yr. old from 20 miles away!! BUT he was very nice and smelled good!
briegull - she came from Budapest to stay with her two sons in the states. She helps me out two days a week and is wonderful.....wants to help too much, and am having trouble adjusting to the lack of privacy. I am not good with help, as want them to feel at home too much. I could never be royalty (am sure many countries are begging for me) MY husband loves the attention. Hungarian is so difficult!!!!!
I know exactly what you mean. That middle-European determination to succeed, to be right, to clean - I need my privacy, to be messy if I want to be. I can't stand being in the house when the CNA comes once a week. Today I'm going to send her home but pay her for the whole time. It's 15 degrees and slippery out there, and there's no parking so no one will be at the zoo. But she drives me crazy if I'm home.
We have a Ukrainian family we're close to - real American success story of couple who came here about 14 years ago with their two kids. I did ESL teaching with them and they became like son and daughter to me. THe kids have grown up; the girl's a successful engineer and the boy on his way to law school, while the father now runs his own business and the wife manages four rental properties that she's bought on foreclosures over time. They decided that my husband needed a new recliner (he did, but I was looking at a used-furniture store for one). SO the husband determined that the best one would be one with a lift - which is too complicated for my husband to figure out how to use. I persuaded him not to buy that one but the one they got is much too big for either of us - the headrest hits at an uncomfortable spot, etc. But how to return it?!! Impossible!! And it is good looking.
briegull, my daughter told me about a new product that I got for her husband for Christmas. It is called "Headbone Head and Backrest". It hangs over the back of the chair and can be adjusted to the proper position and degree of firmness as a headrest. This must be a new company since, after I ordered it, I got an e-mail from Victoria Closson, President, thanking me for my order and asking me to pass the word around. When it arrived there was a hand-written note from Victoria again thanking me and asking me to tell my friends. It looks very well made, and is comfortable. The cost, with shipping, was $27.90. If you are interested the web site is: www.TheHeadbone.com. Phone number is 800-345-2234.
I experienced my husband's first delusion this morning...or I think that was what is was. I heard my husband in the bathroom laughing, he was laughing so hard that I thought he was crying. I ask him what was funny, he rambled something about they were giggling, he kept looking in the mirror. I read where others on this board have experienced this...however, I must admit it was kind of unsettling.
Kadee, I don't think that was a delusion per se ... I think your husband didn't recognize himself in the mirror. The more he laughed, the more his new "friend" laughed, and you know how contagious laughter is. Pity he couldn't share the joke with you...
Kadee, be greatful its laughter,:) there can be instances of anger and violence toward their images. like sunshyne says i agree he didnt recognize himself. my DH just spends lots of time in front of a long hallway mirror, its fun to see him start pointing and smiling at his 'freind' as hes walking toward the mirror...i luv it. any small pleasure is a joy at this point. just go with the flow and it will make it easier. Divvi
We have episodes of laughter(few) and arguments(more) with the "lady in the mirror". This has been going on the past 2 months. This seemed to be accompanied by an overall increase in agitation/crying - to a point where our PCP added Abilify to her med regimen (Aricept and Namenda). I think we need to go back to Mayo to get their 2 cents.
She is now accusing the lady in the mirror of stealing anything that she has misplaced. The other night she woke me up to tell me that the lady threatened to kill her. Gotta keep rollin' with the punches.
You're spot on - that was mentioned as a solution by one of the facilitators at our last AD support meeting. I'm just not ready to cover all the mirrors - our 18 y/o can't live in TOO goofy of an environment.
I monitor our "lady in the mirror" conversations. Mostly DW and her laugh and joke. Sometimes I ask her what the lady says. The lady 'knows' things that DW doesn't (i.e. her grandmother has been dead for 35 years). If it starts going bad, I'll cover the mirrors, otherwise they will continue their playdates.
oh, iggy, wasn't that the traditional form of mourning? Or at least hanging mirrors with black crepe fabric? Can you teach her to throw the fabric over the mirror to get back at the lady there?
Belonging to this forum has prepared me for episodes like this morning, if I had not read about other members experiences, I am sure I would have freaked out. Just another reason this forum is great! Thank you Joan.
My hussband has had delusions for some time, but not the "cute" type anyone can smile about. He believes I've been having affairs in our home while he was stilll here. He remembers quite vividly my taking a man to our bedroom as if that was okay and sleeping with him. He tells everyone this. He is living in Florida in a nursing home near his sister now (I'm in Virginia) but that kind of talk persists. The family believes him. He must think I live next door or in the same apartment....he calls me at all hours to helpl him find his shoes, get dressed, help him up, etc. It's quite alarming. Yesturday he called several times and mentioned my visit that afternoon. Asked when I was coming back.
Sometimes I read here how everyone else is coping with the effects of this disease on their loved one. Everyone mosstly seems to take things right in stride and has ready help. Everyone else must be so much stronger than I am. Sometimes my husband calls me from so far away and pleads tearfully for me to come get him. the other two thirds of the calls are threatening and accussing. I'm so conflicted when I hear the tears. Then, I listen to the other calls and can't find the willlingness to call except to his caretakers who fill me in on what's going on. I'm so confused. The family is trying to force a divorce (another topic) and I miss my partner. I'm completely alone in the face of this except for my mother and father who live far away. I have their support emotionally. I think if I did bring him home (if that faction of the family that placed him there would even allow it) and all the legall matters went back into place, I'd still have to place him outside my home. Wish some fairy godmother woulld tell me what to do.
StuntGirl-please don't think we are stronger than you are. Perhaps just more experienced. We hear you and someone will come along soon to help you-I promise
This disease and all the uncertain extenuative circumstances it brings with it, like yours Sgirl, is the real travesty of it all. Not sure what brought on the circumstances you are dealing with the family trying to force a divorce without consent, but it seems to the eye a shady action at best. you have good attys who represent your behalf so i am sure they will try to do whatever to keep your part of the marriage intact. as far as the calls, in your situation being far away, and unable to really offer any handson help to husband, i am not sure its in your best interest to have him callling you all the time? he has to have access to a phone where he is, maybe you should speak with family or nurses there and ask to not allow that if its causing you undo stress? he wont remember whether he calls or not i would think later...your situation is unique in that having a demented person file for divorce seems to test the legal issues of it..sorry you find yourself in this and hopefully things will work out for your benefit too. Divvi