Hello Everyone :)

onecollie

New member
May 1, 2021
7
0
Hi all, my name is Jolene and I joined this group hoping to get some help as I'm trying to figure out what has happened to my husband. I'm sorry this will be a long post.
Some background, on Monday night April 26 2021 my husband and I were watching CNN when he suddenly says " I hope they don't call me " I asked who? He responded " the cartel " He then went on to explain that they would look through the phone book and call each name until they found someone to work for them. I'm trying to make this short so I'll just leave it there. Then on Tuesday when I got home from work he was in the driveway in his van, I went up and asked him if he was moving it, he said yes but he kept sitting there doing nothing. I asked what was wrong with him and he replied he is having trouble thinking and talking. I got him into my van and went to the ER thinking he might be having a stroke. After 6 hours, a ton of bloodwork, a urinalyses and a CT scan we were discharged and told they would book him for an MRI within 2 weeks.
On Wednesday he went out with his van and when he hadnt returned in 3 hours I called him. He thought he was looking for an electronics store but did not know where he was or what street he was on. I finally talked him into pulling over and parking. The only thing he could see that he understood was ATM. I prayed to God and went out looking for. Amazingly I found him!! I told him he had been driving for 3 hours and he was surprised. Now during these past 3 days I was noticing what I call episodes were coming on more and more often. By the time I got home from work on Thursday it was so obvious something was really wrong. These episodes would put him into a trance like state where he would just stare at me and not move. I got him back into my van and went back to the ER. It was so difficult to make the Doctors believe this was not normal for him! He also has bi polar disorder and is on alot of medications. He has also had 1 appointment with a neurologist as he has suffered with hand tremors for 2 years. She s suspecting Parkinsons. He was taken off 1 of his bi polar meds to see if the tremors lessened or stopped. He goes back in July to see her. The tremors have not stopped.
Back to the ER, they repeated bloodwork & the only odd thing was he had slightly elevated white blood cells which he apparently has had since 2013!! No one has ever addressed this! The Dr came in to tell me they were discharging him and would book an urgent MRI. The entire time we were there he was in his trance state almost all of the time. When he would snap out of it sometimes he would remember it happened sometimes he wouldn't. In a moment of clarity he went to the washroom. I went looking for him when he didnt return. I found him in the washroom, water running in the sink, standing there in a trance. I got the Dr as I could not make him move. The Dr also tried talking to him and getting him to move so now he saw first hand what I was talking about! I started to cry and told the Dr I thought he needed to be admitted. The Dr agreed. Today he is finally getting the MRI. He is pretty much in the trance state all the time. So in the space of 5 days I have gone from having a normal functioning husband to one that can't communicate :( I am sick with worry and I'm hoping maybe someone on here has also dealt with this and can give me some advice.
Thank you for reading this far and thank you in advance for any help.
 

Izzy

Volunteer Moderator
Aug 31, 2003
74,004
0
72
Dundee
Welcome to the forun @onecollie.

How very worrying for you. I hope that you can get some answers soon.

I haven’t experienced anything like this with either my my nephew or my husband but others may have. My my use to have TIAs but they didn’t last nearly as long as you describe. I’m glad you’ve found the forum and I know you will get lots of support and understanding here.
 

MaNaAk

Registered User
Jun 19, 2016
11,755
0
Essex
Hi all, my name is Jolene and I joined this group hoping to get some help as I'm trying to figure out what has happened to my husband. I'm sorry this will be a long post.
Some background, on Monday night April 26 2021 my husband and I were watching CNN when he suddenly says " I hope they don't call me " I asked who? He responded " the cartel " He then went on to explain that they would look through the phone book and call each name until they found someone to work for them. I'm trying to make this short so I'll just leave it there. Then on Tuesday when I got home from work he was in the driveway in his van, I went up and asked him if he was moving it, he said yes but he kept sitting there doing nothing. I asked what was wrong with him and he replied he is having trouble thinking and talking. I got him into my van and went to the ER thinking he might be having a stroke. After 6 hours, a ton of bloodwork, a urinalyses and a CT scan we were discharged and told they would book him for an MRI within 2 weeks.
On Wednesday he went out with his van and when he hadnt returned in 3 hours I called him. He thought he was looking for an electronics store but did not know where he was or what street he was on. I finally talked him into pulling over and parking. The only thing he could see that he understood was ATM. I prayed to God and went out looking for. Amazingly I found him!! I told him he had been driving for 3 hours and he was surprised. Now during these past 3 days I was noticing what I call episodes were coming on more and more often. By the time I got home from work on Thursday it was so obvious something was really wrong. These episodes would put him into a trance like state where he would just stare at me and not move. I got him back into my van and went back to the ER. It was so difficult to make the Doctors believe this was not normal for him! He also has bi polar disorder and is on alot of medications. He has also had 1 appointment with a neurologist as he has suffered with hand tremors for 2 years. She s suspecting Parkinsons. He was taken off 1 of his bi polar meds to see if the tremors lessened or stopped. He goes back in July to see her. The tremors have not stopped.
Back to the ER, they repeated bloodwork & the only odd thing was he had slightly elevated white blood cells which he apparently has had since 2013!! No one has ever addressed this! The Dr came in to tell me they were discharging him and would book an urgent MRI. The entire time we were there he was in his trance state almost all of the time. When he would snap out of it sometimes he would remember it happened sometimes he wouldn't. In a moment of clarity he went to the washroom. I went looking for him when he didnt return. I found him in the washroom, water running in the sink, standing there in a trance. I got the Dr as I could not make him move. The Dr also tried talking to him and getting him to move so now he saw first hand what I was talking about! I started to cry and told the Dr I thought he needed to be admitted. The Dr agreed. Today he is finally getting the MRI. He is pretty much in the trance state all the time. So in the space of 5 days I have gone from having a normal functioning husband to one that can't communicate :( I am sick with worry and I'm hoping maybe someone on here has also dealt with this and can give me some advice.
Thank you for reading this far and thank you in advance for any help.
Dear @onecollie,

I can only imagine that you must be worried sick. My experience isn't quite the same but with dad's Alzheimers a couple of times he had absences. These were shortlived and a couple of times he said he couldn't see. I call them absences because I had a pupil who suffered from these and they were a type of epilepsy. I hope you get some answers soon all I could do with dad was offer him reassurance but we already had a diagnosis so I had some idea of what I was dealing with and also dad suffered from diabetes type two.

MaNaAk
 

nellbelles

Volunteer Host
Nov 6, 2008
9,842
0
leicester
Hello @onecollie and welcome from me.

My husband suddenly started zoning out on me the GP started off saying they were Tia’s eventually he was diagnosed by the hospital as having epilepsy and he would remember nothing for several hours.
What ever it is I’m glad the hospital are taking it seriously
Please keep us updated.
 

onecollie

New member
May 1, 2021
7
0
Dear @onecollie,

I can only imagine that you must be worried sick. My experience isn't quite the same but with dad's Alzheimers a couple of times he had absences. These were shortlived and a couple of times he said he couldn't see. I call them absences because I had a pupil who suffered from these and they were a type of epilepsy. I hope you get some answers soon all I could do with dad was offer him reassurance but we already had a diagnosis so I had some idea of what I was dealing with and also dad suffered from diabetes type two.

MaNaAk
Thank you !
I’m really starting to think epilepsy now , next week he gets an EEG so we will hopefully get some answers ??
 

onecollie

New member
May 1, 2021
7
0
Dear @onecollie,

I can only imagine that you must be worried sick. My experience isn't quite the same but with dad's Alzheimers a couple of times he had absences. These were shortlived and a couple of times he said he couldn't see. I call them absences because I had a pupil who suffered from these and they were a type of epilepsy. I hope you get some answers soon all I could do with dad was offer him reassurance but we already had a diagnosis so I had some idea of what I was dealing with and also dad suffered from diabetes type two.

MaNaAk
Thank you ??
 

onecollie

New member
May 1, 2021
7
0
Welcome to the forun @onecollie.

How very worrying for you. I hope that you can get some answers soon.

I haven’t experienced anything like this with either my my nephew or my husband but others may have. My my use to have TIAs but they didn’t last nearly as long as you describe. I’m glad you’ve found the forum and I know you will get lots of support and understanding here.
Thank you ??
 

MaNaAk

Registered User
Jun 19, 2016
11,755
0
Essex
Dear @nitram,

This is an opener for me as well dad had a haemorrhagic stroke at the end and he had diabetes type 2 and he had developed an irregular heart beat (his age). Dad did well to manage diabetes for thirty-two years and @onecollie please keep posting.


MaNaAk
 

jennifer1967

Registered User
Mar 15, 2020
23,144
0
Southampton
mini-strokes had vary in degree. my husband had one and he is weaker down his left[dominant] side. the nurse said they know which side is affected by the amount of bruising on his arm that come up for no reason. its one of the factors of vascular dementia as it narrows the blood vessels
 

DennyD

Registered User
Dec 6, 2016
264
0
Porthcawl, South Wales
I'm sorry you find yourself in such a worrying and uncertain situation. Are they suspecting it is dementia related? There is so much going on I do hope that the medics will be able to make a diagnosis for your both soon. I hope that you will be able to, and be given the space to, process it all. Make sure you keep fully informed and don't be rushed into making decisions or conclusions.
I wish you all the best and let us know what happened.
 

onecollie

New member
May 1, 2021
7
0
Dear @nitram,

This is an opener for me as well dad had a haemorrhagic stroke at the end and he had diabetes type 2 and he had developed an irregular heart beat (his age). Dad did well to manage diabetes for thirty-two years and @onecollie please keep posting.


MaNaAk
Thank you MaNaAk, I will
 

silkiest

Registered User
Feb 9, 2017
865
0
Hi @onecollie, a year or two before my mum started with Alzheimers she had several episodes where she was not herself, she lost vision in one eye temporarily and constantly felt her brain was not working properly. She had many investigations including an ECG that showed nothing. Eventually a 24 hour ECG showed she was having episodes of extremely slow heart beats which do not show on a normal ECG (which only takes a few seconds). She had a pacemaker which improved things dramatically until the Alzheimers kicked in.