My husband has been going downhill recently and yesterday displayed some new behaviors (break from reality) at daycare. I emailed his neuro and he has suggested a stay in their hospital's nursing home, sub acute unit, for medication adjustment. I have heard of people going to a psychiatric hospital or psych unit in a general hospital for this, but not what he is suggesting. Anyone have experience with this type of situation? Our aide suggested that I ask to go and stay with him (overnight too), because he is fine when I'm around--his behaviors always escalate when I'm not there. For example, I've never seen him hallucinate, but she has. He can tolerate a short time away from me, but I can't imagine how worked up he would get if he was an inpatient and I wasn't there most of the time. I guess I realize he needs the medication adjustment, but don't want this to turn into a disaster.
We had a bad experience with a hospital stay for medication adjustment. His condition declined rapidly with the high doses of meds he was given. This facility sounds different but I'd still recommend trying some adjustments at home first. My DH is on Geodon for psychotic behavior.
Hildann--that's why I want to proceed cautiously. He is only calm for several hours without me--but I'm afraid a hospitalization could end up causing even more problems.
my personal opinion is that you would do well to observe and witness and scrutinize all meds that will be given. and start out at a very low dose to see how he reacts. it can be increased if needed but once high doses are inthe system it can cause lots of side effects and even worse behaviour. i hope it works out. divvi
I found out that there is a waiting list for the recommended facility, and since my husband's behavior was fine after the incident yesterday and has been fine today, we will see his neuro next Weds. and go from there. After talking this through with a nurse from the clinic where he is seen, the problem could have been caused by a recent flu shot. The nurse explained that at the facility, the goal is to identify whether the cause of problem behaviors is a medical one vs. dementia, and address it accordingly. That approach does make sense, but I think I would rather have the medication changes take place at home, so as Divvi said, I can have closer supervision.