Hi All,
I'm here because I'm looking for advice.
A bit of background info first.
My Wife & I moved next door to Nell and her Husband Doug in 1991 and we became Friends. I used to take Nell shopping, She would shout me round to go and have my dinner with them and they would baby sit my Daughter when she was born in 1994, they treated us like the family they never had. Doug had a stroke in 1993 I used to go round on an evening and help get him upstairs to bed etc. In 1995 they moved to a bungalow on the Sheltered Housing estate which is at the bottom of our Garden and literally just round the corner, Doug died later that year and I was with them both in the Hospital when he passed away. Nell doesn't have any Family on her side and no contact with any Family on Doug's side with the exception of the very occassional contact from his Sister. Nell considers me to be her Son and as such I was priveledged to accompany Nell in the Herse at Dougs funeral. Nell is like a Mother\Grandmother to myself, my Wife and Daughter.
Now on to the difficult bit, I'm just going to write stuff as it comes to me so please bear with me.
Over the last few Months Nell has changed considerably, she has become confused & forgetful and has talked about hallucinations and dreams (more on that later). She has been in a powered wheel chair for several years and before that when she could still walk she had a scooter. She used to go to the Bingo on a evening held by the Wardens at the Community Centre, she has now stopped going and is using the building work as the reason (they are building some new full time care flats), I think actually she is afraid of what people will think about her being forgetfull etc.
I have to go over things several times with her and she will say something in the Kitchen while I'm making a drink and then 5 mins later we'll have the same conversation again.
Nell is forgetting to take her tablets, some of which are quite important. She is currently taking Bendroflumethiazide, Lansoprazole, Digoxin, Allopurinol and up to last week Ramipril which I had changed to Cozaar after reading about the side effects of Ramipril some of which appear to fit her current symptoms. Lansoprazole & Digoxin also appear to cause similar problems. Nell has talked about Hallucinations where she would look at some fluff or something on the floor and it would start to move, she said she would even try to touch it. She has mentioned surfaces appearing to have a honeycomb\wire netting type effect and has mentioned other very vivid Hallucinations.
She mentioned a couple of weeks ago that said was sitting outside in the early hours of the morning wondering why I wasn't there, maybe this was a dream, maybe not.
On a few occassions lately she has phoned me late in the evening to say she can hear a whistling, I spent 20 mins trying to convince her that there wasn't anything in the corner she mentioned that could whistle but she wouldn't rest until I went round. I went round and there was no noise but she said she could hear it everywhere including outside, I tried to explain that it was probably Tinitus and it was after this episode I had the Doctor out to swap the Ramipril.
Yesterday Nell phoned me to tell me she had accidentally thrown her teeth away and unfortunately on bin collection day, from what she said she cleaned her teeth and then for some unknown reason she says she put them on the wall next to the bin outside but I'm still trying to get her to remember why she did this.
This morning She rang to ask if I had been round last night, I hadn't but when I went round this afternoon she said she rang me last night (she didn't) and asked me to go round, in this "Dream" she was sitting in her chair in the Bedroom and when I went in she was crying, I went and put my arms around her and she then started to tell me how sorry she was that she was causing me all these problems and worry, she says "these dreams are as real as I'm talking to you now".
Nell seems convinced what she is currently experiencing is down to the tablets, my own fear is what seems a very rapid onset of Dementia in one form or another. When I had the Doctor out last week I was hoping Nell would explain about the hallucinations etc but she didn't. I do actually think Nell may well know what is happening and she is scared of that and trying to pin it on the medication or anything else because that is obviously easier for her to accept. I was trying to give the Doctor hints without actually mentioning Dementia etc, he didn't say anything if he did notice the changes.
One other incident that has just come to mind is that a few ago she phoned me up one morning to say the Doctors had rung her and told her she had Parkinsons, I obviously immediately contacted the Surgery and no such call was made.
Nell keeps asking me what I think this is, do I think she is losing it etc?, I don't know what to say to this so I'm going with the medication point of view for the time being. I have mentioned a few times lately that it's just part of getting older (she is now 82) and that if we can get "the problem" diagnosed they can hopefully slow down the onset but I haven't mentioned Dementia\Altzheimers. I don't know how to broach the subject with her or who I should approach about it to get her diagnosed etc.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Craig
I'm here because I'm looking for advice.
A bit of background info first.
My Wife & I moved next door to Nell and her Husband Doug in 1991 and we became Friends. I used to take Nell shopping, She would shout me round to go and have my dinner with them and they would baby sit my Daughter when she was born in 1994, they treated us like the family they never had. Doug had a stroke in 1993 I used to go round on an evening and help get him upstairs to bed etc. In 1995 they moved to a bungalow on the Sheltered Housing estate which is at the bottom of our Garden and literally just round the corner, Doug died later that year and I was with them both in the Hospital when he passed away. Nell doesn't have any Family on her side and no contact with any Family on Doug's side with the exception of the very occassional contact from his Sister. Nell considers me to be her Son and as such I was priveledged to accompany Nell in the Herse at Dougs funeral. Nell is like a Mother\Grandmother to myself, my Wife and Daughter.
Now on to the difficult bit, I'm just going to write stuff as it comes to me so please bear with me.
Over the last few Months Nell has changed considerably, she has become confused & forgetful and has talked about hallucinations and dreams (more on that later). She has been in a powered wheel chair for several years and before that when she could still walk she had a scooter. She used to go to the Bingo on a evening held by the Wardens at the Community Centre, she has now stopped going and is using the building work as the reason (they are building some new full time care flats), I think actually she is afraid of what people will think about her being forgetfull etc.
I have to go over things several times with her and she will say something in the Kitchen while I'm making a drink and then 5 mins later we'll have the same conversation again.
Nell is forgetting to take her tablets, some of which are quite important. She is currently taking Bendroflumethiazide, Lansoprazole, Digoxin, Allopurinol and up to last week Ramipril which I had changed to Cozaar after reading about the side effects of Ramipril some of which appear to fit her current symptoms. Lansoprazole & Digoxin also appear to cause similar problems. Nell has talked about Hallucinations where she would look at some fluff or something on the floor and it would start to move, she said she would even try to touch it. She has mentioned surfaces appearing to have a honeycomb\wire netting type effect and has mentioned other very vivid Hallucinations.
She mentioned a couple of weeks ago that said was sitting outside in the early hours of the morning wondering why I wasn't there, maybe this was a dream, maybe not.
On a few occassions lately she has phoned me late in the evening to say she can hear a whistling, I spent 20 mins trying to convince her that there wasn't anything in the corner she mentioned that could whistle but she wouldn't rest until I went round. I went round and there was no noise but she said she could hear it everywhere including outside, I tried to explain that it was probably Tinitus and it was after this episode I had the Doctor out to swap the Ramipril.
Yesterday Nell phoned me to tell me she had accidentally thrown her teeth away and unfortunately on bin collection day, from what she said she cleaned her teeth and then for some unknown reason she says she put them on the wall next to the bin outside but I'm still trying to get her to remember why she did this.
This morning She rang to ask if I had been round last night, I hadn't but when I went round this afternoon she said she rang me last night (she didn't) and asked me to go round, in this "Dream" she was sitting in her chair in the Bedroom and when I went in she was crying, I went and put my arms around her and she then started to tell me how sorry she was that she was causing me all these problems and worry, she says "these dreams are as real as I'm talking to you now".
Nell seems convinced what she is currently experiencing is down to the tablets, my own fear is what seems a very rapid onset of Dementia in one form or another. When I had the Doctor out last week I was hoping Nell would explain about the hallucinations etc but she didn't. I do actually think Nell may well know what is happening and she is scared of that and trying to pin it on the medication or anything else because that is obviously easier for her to accept. I was trying to give the Doctor hints without actually mentioning Dementia etc, he didn't say anything if he did notice the changes.
One other incident that has just come to mind is that a few ago she phoned me up one morning to say the Doctors had rung her and told her she had Parkinsons, I obviously immediately contacted the Surgery and no such call was made.
Nell keeps asking me what I think this is, do I think she is losing it etc?, I don't know what to say to this so I'm going with the medication point of view for the time being. I have mentioned a few times lately that it's just part of getting older (she is now 82) and that if we can get "the problem" diagnosed they can hopefully slow down the onset but I haven't mentioned Dementia\Altzheimers. I don't know how to broach the subject with her or who I should approach about it to get her diagnosed etc.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Craig
