I bought my husband a new pair of pants. After wearing them for a few hours, he changed to jeans. While helping him shower Monday evening, I saw to my horror that he was covered with hives! Huge hives! This had happened once before when we had purchased lots of new clothes for him. I found out them that formaldehyde (yes!) is used in the processing of new clothes and evidently he had had an allergic reaction to it. However, this happened many years ago and the hives went away with a baking soda bath and by washing all the new clothes.
This time was different. After I helped him shower I covered him in pink Caladryl lotion, and he went to bed. He was itching so badly Tues. a.m. that I kept him home from daycare and gave him ONE dose of Benadryl. Within an hour he was hallucinating so badly that he was truly acting crazy. This continued all day and into the night. I could only leave the room to go to the bathroom or feed the horses outside or bring in firewood. It was terrifying. I called an ER nurse in my support group and she said she has heard of this, that the wiring of AD brains is so messed up, and Benadryl is a CNS depressant, so screws up an already messed up brain. On the internet I could only find one article which stated that Benedryl, when given to the elderly, can block acetylcholine and cause hallucinations. And this is not talking about an overdose!
I am wondering if anyone has heard of or experienced this? Needless to say, he has had no more Benadryl. He is seeing the dr. today for the hives, and I think they will give him Prednisone or something similar. Just thought I would pass on a warning that might or might not apply to your LO.
Catbird, So sorry you and your LO had to experience that. Let us know what the DR gives him for the hives. Thanks so much for the warning. Never would have suspected that. Thanks for sharing, PAT
It is interesting that the reason for the increased brain dysfunction is that the benedryl is a CNS depressant. Interesting. In addition to having an AD husband, I have a father with Parkinson's. (My mom is well and takes care of him.) When he has had to go under general anesthesia for surgery in the past couple years, he is completely out of his mind for a day or so until the drugs wear off. I guess then I'm not surprised that any, even minor, CNS depressant might have exaggerated action on a brain which is already funky.
wonder if benadryl cream would help without side effects?
Why do you think the anesthesia causes problems? It was after a major operation that Robert's issues became glaringly obvious. The only thing that we can figure is that he was in the early early stages prior to the surgery and we hadn't noticed it yet.
Not being an anesthesiologist I'd have to merely speculate that blocking pain, or consciousness of pain, necessarily involves blocking neuro-receptors at some level. Obviously, with AD we generally want to maximize neuroreceptivity (and acetylcholine.)
When we were considering surgery for David as a result of the car accident he was in we decided that surgery was only a last resort option. His surgeon agreed with us that general anesthesia can intensify and speed up the alz symptoms. Interestingly, his major alz problems did not appear until about 6 months after the car accident from a head on collision. One of his doctors thinks that the accident may have triggered an underlying pre-disposition to alz.
Wow..... I often wondered if the scooter accident Dee had about 6-7 years ago had anything to do with AD.. She wanted to learn to ride the scooter and held the thumb eccelerator wide open and went flying across the yard, then lost control and when she feel over she smacked her head and was unconsious for a moment...... Also reading thru this discussion I,m wondering if Dee is scheduled for a colinoscopy next summer if the meds used to perform that procedure will have an affect such as those used in a regular operation ???.......Sorry if my questions are hi-jacking this thread............ Dan
Oh my!!!!!!!!!!That sure is all new to me and so glad to learn about all this. Gosh! This site is soooo helpful to me. And also answers why my LO leaves a little worst each time from hospital after heart attacks and procedures (stints and angios).We always thought it was just change or out of comfort zone whch its could be both.
my husband was demonstrating some short tem memory loss prior to his surgery, after being put to sleep for the surgery he woke up talking gibberish and has gone down hill since. I would certainly weigh the pros and cons of surgery VS the effects it will likely have on your loved ones AD. Kathy
At the top of the Message Boards, click "search". Under Topic, write "colonoscopy". Our discussion about AD patients having colonscopies was a few months ago - you'll be able to read all of the posts on that subject.
I can mark major changes (now that I know Robert has AD) by the surgeries he's had in the last 2 or so years. The vasectomy reversal kicked it off (Oct 05). He was under for about 4 hours with that one. We stayed in a hotel owned by the hospital that night so that we would be nearby if there were complications. I couldn't keep Robert off his feet. He kept sneaking out to smoke and then he would sit outside and talk and talk to other people or he would walk up the road. He just about drove me crazy.
Then in Jan it seemed he had a mental breakdown or something. He just got really weird. He's always had issues with depression so we thought it was related to that. He became delussional and really out of his mind. This went on for the next 3 or 4 months. He was having almost weekly doctor's appointments while we tired to get his meds straightened out. He ended up in the behavioral health ward for a week. Things seemed to get a little better until he started throwing up any and all solid food.
He had a blood clot preventing food from leaving his stomach. This was thought to be caused by a seat belt injury although Robert can not tell us when he might have had a fender bender. So, he had to have another surgery in June06. This one had him under for about 6 hours. Plus he was on epidural pain meds for 3 days after.
When he came home fromt he hospital, he could not remember anything. He would ask repetitive questions until I thought I would loose my mind. Where are the kids? When will they be home? etc, etc, etc,... He forgot how to dress himself or where his clothes were. He would come down from taking a shower totally naked and ask me "what do I do?" He would not eat unless I put it in front of him. It was really, really scarey. Over the next month, he gradually got a little better. He got to where he could dress himself and didn't have to wait to be fed to get something out of the fridge. But he still couldn't remember anything. He was incredibly depressed.
The doctors refused to believe that it was even possible Robert had AD. So they decided his dementia had to be due to his depression. He had 20 or so ECT treatments to try and "aggressively" treat the depression. He got better for a little while and then we were right back to square one. Interestingly, anesthesia and muscle relaxors are given during ECT, but the dementia did not get any worse.
He has also had hernia surgery since the AD diagnosis. This surgery did not seem to worsen his AD symptoms. I don't know if the first 2 surgeries used a different kind of anesthesia then the last one or what the difference was. Or if it makes a difference how long they are under the anesthesia..... It would be about 15 minutes for an ECT treatment and I think about between 1 and 2 hours for the hernia repair.
Leighanne, The medical professionals are finally admitting that anesthesia can cause various serious side effects. When I had my knee replaced in 2006 I was part of a study on the aftereffects of anesthesia and every few hours they would draw blood and ask me to fill out questionnaires. I ended up not finishing the study because I had lost so much blood from the test that I ended up having a transfusion. But at least someone is studying the issue. Personally I feel that the depression people suffer after heart surgery is not because they are suddenly aware of their mortality but rather a side effect of the anesthesia.
Your comments explain A LOT about what I went through a few years ago. I thought I had suffered a brain injury during surgery because of what I experienced afterwards. I am going to write a blog about it for tomorrow, and you have spurred me on to do research about this anesthesia/dementia connection.
It has been my experience ( I mentioned it in one of these discussions some time ago) that doctors almost NEVER listen about drug side effects or anesthesia side effects. Because of my own experience with an extreme serious drug side effect, I found a doctor online who writes a newsletter about drug side effects. I will look him up, write to him about the anesthesia issue, and see what he has to say. He was the ONLY doctor ( and I supposedly had the best in Boston) who would listen to me about the devasting effects of the drug I was taking.
Between the anesthesia after effects and the drug side effects, I was a mess for months.