Just Diagnosed but so many OUTBURSTS

kray

Registered User
Oct 26, 2008
3
0
Hi All,

This is a great forum! Sorry for the really long first post, but our family don’t really know how to cope….

My 73 year old Grandma has just been diagnosed with Dementia.

We’ve suspected a problem for over a year, but the results came back for her CT scan last week, and they have said it is the first stages of dementia. She has been prescribed Reminyl XL.

I have been reading about Reminyl XL, and the steps of Alzheimer’s, and the family cannot work out the outbursts she is having.

One night she was convinced that her husband was trying to lock her in her house. Even phoning the police (who came out).

For the past few weeks (on odd nights), she has been saying that the home she has lived in for over 40 years, isn’t her home, and that’s not where she lives.

And the worst problem was last night – where she was convinced that her husband was trying to kill her by mixing her tablets up, and putting them in the wrong boxes. This lead to her walking out of her home, and demanding that she will not be going back. Sitting at our house (who live close by), until 2am.

What is strange about these anger driven flare-ups is apart from being very confused about the cause of the problem (like very confused about her tablets), she seems to remember everything. Events that have just happened. Conversations. Events from just a few minutes a go. There is no sign of forgetting anything, seeming perfectly normal except for the shouting and accusing of her husband trying to kill her by mixing her tablets up.

Eventually, at 2am, after being upstairs and back in her own home, she just came downstairs in her night clothes and said “Hello”. With no sign that anything had happened over the last few hours. Like the whole event was a dream.



We don’t know what is going on. What she is doing doesn’t seem to match with the level of dementia the hospital says she had.

Why does she have total memory and no confusion about what is going on, except for the single “angry” thought? Could it be something else, not just dementia?

She has only taken 3 of her Reminyl tablets, so they won’t have done anything yet, but will they help these outbursts, or just make sure they don’t get any worse?

Is the “36 hour day” a book worth buying?


Thanks for any help in answering these mixed up questions!!

Cheers.
 

suzanne

Registered User
Jul 25, 2006
189
0
wiltshire
Hello

Hello,welcome to TP, the symptoms you are describing sound very much like sundowning, a common phenomenom with alzheimer suffers, the only way I have found is to not be confrontational and not argue the issue but distraction, turn her attention elsewhere, get her onto remembering something else happy...may work sometimes,may not. The other thing is check into infection, urinary infections can throw them into a new dimension that can be hard to cope with but will resolve very quickly when treated, bowels are another cause of confusion/paranoia also easily treated.

The book,personally experience is the greatest teacher and this forum which can help you with everything. Hope this has been of help. Suzy:)
 

fearful fiona

Registered User
Apr 19, 2007
723
0
77
London
Hello Kray,

Welcome to TP, yes it is a brilliant forum.

Your experience with your grandma is the experience of so many of us on TP. My Mum had exactly the same outbursts, paranoia etc etc and Suzanne has said it all, I find distraction works, definitely don't have a confrontation. I had some terrible confrontations with my Mum initially, quite simply because I didn't know how to handle this awful illness. Now of course I know better.

I think it is impossible to understand what is going on in the head of a dementia sufferer; I spend sleepless nights worrying about my Mum and just come to the conclusion that her head is a mess of crossed wires, etc.

Books can help (I don't know the one you're mentioning) but nothing beats sharing your concerns on TP because we're either all there, or have been there, so have first hand experience.

Keep in touch.
 

CraigC

Registered User
Mar 21, 2003
6,633
0
London
Hi Kray,

I agree that nothing beats speaking to people with experience, but there are a lot of good books out there too.

The books all hold some really useful gems. Have read the 36 hour day and found it useful - not too well laid out in my opinion, but lots of useful information. Just rereading 'Dementia - At your finger tips' again which has a nice QandA layout again with lots of useful gems.

Good luck and you are doing the right thing getting as much information together as you can. What I love about this forum is that you never feel alone, caring is hard enough without feeling lonely on top of things.

Kindest Regards
Craig
 

kray

Registered User
Oct 26, 2008
3
0
Thanks for all the replies guys!

Im sure i'll be talking more on here in the future.

So the signs i have wrote about seem "normal" for someone in the first stages of dementia?

Those "7 steps of dementia" made me think she could have been misdiagnosed -- maybe on step 4 or higher, or maybe another problem completly.

It's just so strange that none of this happened until the day she got her results back from the hospital! :confused: :eek:

Thanks again for the help!

CraigC -- I will look into that 'Dementia - At your finger tips' book aswell. Cheers!

Regards,

kray.