When my husband was under a lot of pressure from family members to see a doctor about his forgetfulness and confusion he had several episodes one night of falling sleep, suddenly waking and jerking upright, and staring into space and shouting out, very similar to what I imagine night terrors are like.
The doctor was unable to explain this, but all the usual checks were made when concerns over dementia were mentioned. There was no evidence of a stroke but as a result of the tests he was diagnosed with Alzheimers.
This was 9 months ago and there have been no more "episodes" until last week.
He appeared to suddenly drop of to sleep in an armchair and after a few minutes suddenly jerked upright, eyes wide open, after which his head slumped to one side and just stared into space for about 10 seconds, then he slowly gained awareness of where he was but had no recollection of anything happening to him.
It was absolutely terrifying for me. It happened twice more within about an hour, and he kept saying he was hot one minute, cold the next. I thought it could be an infection, (which it wasn't) so I called 111 who could offer no help but advised me to take him to his GP in the morning.
He refused to go, so I went on my own but again was given no explanation. He had started taking Donepezil two weeks ago, so I wondered if this was a side effect, although he hadn't even had a diagnosis the first time it happened.
Has anyone else had experience of these "episodes"? I just don't know if it's something else for him to worry about or part of the dementia process.
The doctor was unable to explain this, but all the usual checks were made when concerns over dementia were mentioned. There was no evidence of a stroke but as a result of the tests he was diagnosed with Alzheimers.
This was 9 months ago and there have been no more "episodes" until last week.
He appeared to suddenly drop of to sleep in an armchair and after a few minutes suddenly jerked upright, eyes wide open, after which his head slumped to one side and just stared into space for about 10 seconds, then he slowly gained awareness of where he was but had no recollection of anything happening to him.
It was absolutely terrifying for me. It happened twice more within about an hour, and he kept saying he was hot one minute, cold the next. I thought it could be an infection, (which it wasn't) so I called 111 who could offer no help but advised me to take him to his GP in the morning.
He refused to go, so I went on my own but again was given no explanation. He had started taking Donepezil two weeks ago, so I wondered if this was a side effect, although he hadn't even had a diagnosis the first time it happened.
Has anyone else had experience of these "episodes"? I just don't know if it's something else for him to worry about or part of the dementia process.