Hi there,
My lovely parents are having a very hard time as my father seems to have dementia (symptoms started around start of pandemic) but they are still waiting for an official diagnosis and a visit to the memory clinic. He has a history of TIAs and is on medication for high blood pressure. My dad gets very confused and imagines things that aren’t happening which play over and over in his mind and he forces my mum to stay and sit with him and talk about one things he’s latched on to for ages. At other times he seems quite lucid and is just normal dad.
Today he thought he had somehow got involved in some TV court show he was watching and couldn’t see how to get out of it. He has a social care worker and carers do come to help in the day, but often with other people he seems absolutely fine. His care worker called during this episode this afternoon and mum was so glad as she feels people don’t believe her when she says she thinks he has dementia issues. However, he was completely lucid with the care worker and you would never have guessed anything was wrong. After the call he remarked that he felt he was being analysed on the phone so had to think carefully about what to say. A short while later he was back to worrying again. My question is has anyone experienced this before? Is it possible for someone to control their dementia symptoms and cover it up around non family members? His confused episodes are getting much worse and I have seen them and it is very hard to talk him back down to reality when he has one (I had to convince him the tv remote wasn’t affecting his balance and it took ages). If anyone has any experience of similar issues I would be very interested to know. Many thanks.
My lovely parents are having a very hard time as my father seems to have dementia (symptoms started around start of pandemic) but they are still waiting for an official diagnosis and a visit to the memory clinic. He has a history of TIAs and is on medication for high blood pressure. My dad gets very confused and imagines things that aren’t happening which play over and over in his mind and he forces my mum to stay and sit with him and talk about one things he’s latched on to for ages. At other times he seems quite lucid and is just normal dad.
Today he thought he had somehow got involved in some TV court show he was watching and couldn’t see how to get out of it. He has a social care worker and carers do come to help in the day, but often with other people he seems absolutely fine. His care worker called during this episode this afternoon and mum was so glad as she feels people don’t believe her when she says she thinks he has dementia issues. However, he was completely lucid with the care worker and you would never have guessed anything was wrong. After the call he remarked that he felt he was being analysed on the phone so had to think carefully about what to say. A short while later he was back to worrying again. My question is has anyone experienced this before? Is it possible for someone to control their dementia symptoms and cover it up around non family members? His confused episodes are getting much worse and I have seen them and it is very hard to talk him back down to reality when he has one (I had to convince him the tv remote wasn’t affecting his balance and it took ages). If anyone has any experience of similar issues I would be very interested to know. Many thanks.