Day Hospital

twink

Registered User
Oct 28, 2005
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Cambridgeshire UK
Hope I've done this right, I haven't got a clue!

Steve - hubby, 56 years old - has today gone for his first day at the day hospital. He'd only been gone for around an hour and the lady there rang me and said he is here and he is ok but he's very restless - he has been for about a week now, instead of sitting in the chair dozing, he can't sit down, he walks all the time - and he is very impaired and not able to retain anything. He's also very bemused as to why he's there. Thinks he still works apparently. That's a new one on me, I've never heard him say anything about that before. He had to stop work four and a half years ago because of rheumatoid arthritis and was diagnosed with dementia one year ago. She said he needs more than we can give him here and there is a group on a Friday for alzheimer's patients so whether that means he can't go to this day hospital anymore I don't know. I didn't think to ask at the time. They are also giving him a prescription for Larazepam to calm him. She said he must be a handful at home. Yes! And I've been saying that but apparently too quietly for the past few weeks!!! If they have seen all that in an hour, I reckon I know what it's like to live with him.

He comes home around 3:30 today so I'll see what he has to say about it then but he'll probably just say it was a waste of time and he's not going again!

Thanks, just need to rant.

Sue
 

Kayla

Registered User
May 14, 2006
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Kent
Hi Sue,
One hour doesn't seem long enough to make a judgement as to whether your husband will be able to settle down. Perhaps when he gets more used to it and his medication has been adjsted things will be better. The lady might have just wanted to know if his behaviour was typical or not.
Kayla
 

twink

Registered User
Oct 28, 2005
265
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71
Cambridgeshire UK
Hope so Kayla. He seems to have come home worse than he went. Very confused but then I guess this was a new experience for him today. She rang me three times in the end today. She said they were sending him home with a script for Lorazepam and I should give him half a tablet tonight and then she rang me back and said they had been and got the tablets and given him half of one as he was agitated and I have to give him the other half tonight after dinner. They have also given me a script for Zopiclone to take at bedtime so he will hopefully sleep BUT, he may also wet the bed! I will have to go into town tomorrow and get a rubber sheet but any ideas anyone on what to do about the quit, being a 'boy' he will pee upwards!! I can't see him agreeing to wearing incontinence pants. He will go next Monday and then in a few weeks on a Tuesday too and she is getting him into a place on a Friday. If this Lorazepam is supposed to make him sit down and not pace about all the time, it's not working.

Sue
 

Amy

Registered User
Jan 4, 2006
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Hiya Sue,
Hang on a minute, who is this lady that is putting Steve on new medication? Is the pacing normally a problem? Does Steve seem upset? Do you feel that his behaviour over recent weeks requires a change in medication? Is it a case that the day hospital could not cope with the pacing so it will be easier for them if Steve is calmed - but what will that do to the rest of his thinking abilities?
Sorry to sound so negative - but to go for the day and to come back on 2 new medications, one of which may make Steve incontinent at night - I think I would want to talk to my GP.
Does Steve seem upset when he is pacing? Mum, for a long time paced,all day.
She did not seem upset by it though.
Love Helen
 

twink

Registered User
Oct 28, 2005
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Cambridgeshire UK
Hi Helen,

sorry, didn't see this last night, wasn't a good night here!!

I didn't explain properly, sorry again. The lady who rang me is 'the boss' of the nurses there, not sure of her exact title but my friend who worked there is a psychiatirc nurse and this woman was her boss. anyway, the psychiatrist was there and it was him who put Steve on the new medication.

The walking about all over the house, the garden and over to the shop opposite and neighbours all started a week ago. When he had a really funny turn the other Friday night, the locum said to up his Haloperidol from 2 a day to 9 a day. (Big jump!?) and when they kicked in he was fine but then we saw the psychiatrist for the usual appointment and he said take him off those tablets, they are not my choice of tablets, I don't want him on them. So I weaned him off them. Now he's started walking about all the time. I sent a letter with him to the hospital yesterday - gave it to the driver anyway who handed it in - and he came home with these two new drugs but it was the psychiatrist who prescribed them.

I do think he needed something different in the way of medication after his turn on 11th August, that was horrible to see and he's not been the same at all since. I'm not sure if they thought at the hospital that it would be easier for them or for me when they said they want him calmed. Probably for them but it will be a big help to me as he is there one minute and gone the next.

Don't apologize for sounding negative, I like to have all the advice I can get here lol. I know this woman yesterday said they had rung the GP about the new medication so they are quite good, I'm happy with the GP. Steve isn't upset when he's pacing but he seems agitated if you see what I mean. He cannot sit down, well he will for a minute but he's rubbish his hands together all the tiem and can't sit still and then has to get up and walk again. He's still doing it today. After the day at the hospital yesterday he was terrible last night. He was a bit stroppy with me which he never has been and just talking rubbish, poor bloke didn't know what he was talking about. I felt a bit uncomfortable with him last night because this was all new to me. And to him.

Sorry this was so long winded!!!

Love Sue
 

Lynne

Registered User
Jun 3, 2005
3,433
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Suffolk,England
Hi Sue

twink said:
He's also very bemused as to why he's there. Thinks he still works apparently. That's a new one on me, I've never heard him say anything about that before. He had to stop work four and a half years ago because of rheumatoid arthritis and was diagnosed with dementia one year ago. She said he needs more than we can give him here and there is a group on a Friday for alzheimer's patients so whether that means he can't go to this day hospital anymore I don't know.
Sue

I don't know what it says about MY mental processes :rolleyes: , but what you said (above) about Steve thinking that he must be going to work (because he was not at home with you) make pretty good sense to me. For the last 4 & 1/2 yrs he has had to stay at home because he was ill. Now, for the first time since then, he's out on his own again, with (apparently) people who seem unable to communicate sympathetically with him. :(
Given that someone has seen fit to make significant changes to his medication because it suits THEM to modify his behaviour ( :mad: Hmmm!) it seems a bit hasty of them to say that they can't have him there before his behaviour adjusts because of the new meds. You'd think that if they had confidence in the new prescription, they would give it a chance to work :confused: before burning his bridges.

It may well be that the new meds. may make his behaviour 'better', obviously you are really the only person who can judge that. But to have to start dealing with incontinence seems a high price to pay, if it's not something which has happened 'naturally' so far.

The constant pacing or walking is something which has been mentioned here several times as a common symptom of dementia (in the physically fit), & agitation following a change to established routine is also a typical reaction. Not that it makes it any easier for you to deal with of adjust to, but sometimes there's a little comfort in knowing that you're not alone in 'new' experiences.

Best wishes
 

twink

Registered User
Oct 28, 2005
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Cambridgeshire UK
Hi Lynne

that's what's so good about this forum isn't it, you post something and then you get replies that really make sense to you. It's good to have another point of view. Of course he might have thought he was at work because it's about the firs ttime he's been anywhere without me for such a long time. Why didn't I think of that! I really don't know what to think about the medication. The GP put him on Diazepam and we had problems with him crying then the psychiatrist said take him off those, I don't like them and don't use them and then on Monday the same psychiatrist put him on Lorazepam. Aren't they the same group of drugs? He's on half a Lorazepam twice a day and a Zopiclone at bedtime and he is SO spaced out. His behaviour certainly isn't better, he's in a right old state. He was getting like this before the new meds though. I don't understand it, this terrible disease.

I can't concentrate on this because he is wandering around and I'm following lol. I just found him putting sellotape around the kettle.

Thanks Lynne.

Sue
 

Nutty Nan

Registered User
Nov 2, 2003
801
0
Buckinghamshire
Dear Sue,
I cannot comment on your husband's medication, or on the attitude of the staff at the day hospital. However, I identify completely with the pacing and the rubbing:
From late morning onwards, my husband spends most of his time pacing up and down, collecting everything within reach and putting it into his pockets. There are times when he is extremely agitated and stressed (pulling plugs out of sockets, tilting furniture and tv forward, trying to walk off with cd player/kettle/microwave, and taking pictures and mirrors off the walls), other times he just potters. When he is stressed, we try and stay nearby to calm him (doesn't always work), the rest of the time we just leave him to it, making sure there is nothing he can damage or hurt himself on. We feel that it is his way of using up his energy, he gets a little bit of exercise, and in my opinion, it is still better than seeing him in a vegetative state in an armchair.
The other obsession is rubbing. It is not just his hands, it is everything: arms, legs, feet, bottom (and front :rolleyes: ), face and especially his head - he has rubbed the top of his head so much that he has broken off his hair, which now looks as though he had a "No.1 haircut", but only above his forehead! He can do this for an hour at a time, even longer, and I find it especially stressful when it happens at nighttime, as it makes the whole bed shake.
I try and accept this as something he 'has to do', and I feel that in the last few weeks, the rubbing has eased off a little bit (even his hair has had a chance to grow a bit!). Hopefully, it is a phase, like so many other phases that have come and gone in the last 10 years. We often turn it into a bit of a 'job' by giving him a serviette to 'clean' the table with. He can amuse himself for a good long while like this and gets praise for a 'job well done' into the bargain.

This may not help much, other than to show you that you are definitely not on your own.

Best wishes!
 

twink

Registered User
Oct 28, 2005
265
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71
Cambridgeshire UK
update

I've had a call from the day hospital this morning and Steve has to go in as soon as possible for assessment. As soon as a bed becomes empty they will have him in. I had a bit of a problem last night because I had to pop over the road to a neighbour to have my new will witnessed. I'd been there half an hour but that must have seemed a long time to him as he rushed in and was angry and agitated and crying and said I'd been gone for too long. My friend is a psychiatric nurse and she came back home with us and gave him one of his sedatives but he cried for about 3 hours. She went to work today and told her boss which resulted in this phone call. They need to know why he's deteriorated so quickly in the last few weeks and need him in hospital to see.

Sue
 

Amy

Registered User
Jan 4, 2006
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Hiya Sue,
Pleased that they are trying to sort things out for Steve. It must have been upsetting for you to see him so distressed.
Love Helen
 

twink

Registered User
Oct 28, 2005
265
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71
Cambridgeshire UK
Hi Helen,

It was awful. He's been upset before, walking and pacing crying and whimpering but this was just real sad crying. My friend has just been over to see us, the nurse, and she asked him how he was and he said a bit better! I assume he meant than last night so he must have remembered. He seems very calm today and nowhere near as confused. Suppose this is just a good day.

Love Sue
 

Amy

Registered User
Jan 4, 2006
3,454
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Sue, maybe a good cry has released some of the tension in him, and so his brain is a little less foggy. Just enjoy today, and the clarity - tomorrow will take care of itself.
Love Helen