What do you do when your LO try's to get out of the car while you are driving? I now put him in the back seat when I have to go some place. He wants to get out of the back seat, pulls on my seat belt, feels that water is n the car, wants me to let him out on the next corner. Does riding in a car make them more nervous as the disease progress? It has been a while since posted. I had to buy a new computer but I have been reading from the sight for the past monh or so. I have truly learned a lot just from reading your comments. This is a journey i would not wish on my worse enemy if I had one. All of you have a good day.
Welcome back to my website. I hope you have checked the home page - www.thealzheimerspouse.com - there are a lot of new resources and information on the left side.
I have not had this problem, but some of my friends have. I hope you either have a 2-door car, or if it is 4-door, it has a child safety lock. That is on the driver's side - you push it down, and no one can unlock or open any doors. That will at least keep him from jumping out. If you put him in the passenger side in the back, he may not be able to reach your seat belt to pull on it.
It sounds like he is hallucinating. Tell your doctor about it, and he may be able to prescribe meds. to calm him down and stop the hallucinations.
In any case, trying to drive with an agitated AD spouse is a safety hazard. If all else fails, and you HAVE to take him somewhere, you may have to enlist the help of a friend or hire someone to sit with him in the car, so you can concentrate on driving.
I've been thinking about this too, but right now he is still sitting in the front passenger seat. He doesn't try to get out when the car is running or grab the wheel from me. He does tell me how to drive in ways that he would have killed me for when he was doing all the driving. It is going to make things much harder when I need to move him to the back seat.
Here's a back seat tip for summer driving, and those of us who live where it is warm all year.
Buy a pie that needs refrigeration. (Like key lime, Boston creme) Tell your spouse that you are taking it to wherever you are going, and it will spoil or melt unless it is on the front seat with the air conditioning blowing directly on it. Therefore, he/she needs to sit in the back seat. It sounds odd, but in all cases in which it was tried, it worked. Even with a man who was wildly angry and abusive about sitting in the back. He was fine giving up his front seat to the key lime pie.
joan, i'd have better luck telling my DH he can have the whole pie to eat with a spoon WHEN he gets into the back seat:) we know how our AD lovers like sweets.. :) divvi
ps unfortunately usually us moving them to the backseat with child locks doesnt happen UNTIL something scary happens -ie grabbing the wheel while driving, grabbing your wrist while driving, trying to open door in traffic trying to jump out in traffic-. if you are lucky you will be able to defer the situation in time. take cautions before it can happen -i know it happened to me without warning and i was going 65mph on a freeway when DH opened his door-luckily seatbelt kept him in. wakeup time~ just like taking their driving priveleges sometimes we have to make them move to a safe area of the car. and yes make sure they sit behind the passengers seat in seatbelt to avoid being able to reach you from behind. i always give some gadget or candy he likes when we get into the car to enteratain. something in their hands keeps them off you. ha divvi
This thread is very interesting because my DH just said the other day that he WANTS to get in the back seat while I am driving. Now I don't know if that is such a good idea because he wouldn't be within arms reach if I needed to attend to something. Of course if you have read my latest discussion you know that he always wants to do what I don't want him to do so I am not going to say anything about it and see what happens.