Is all this normal behaviour?

[dalmation lady]

My father has Frontal Lobe Dementia and Alzheimer's and is currently on memantine and donepezil which have got rid of his aggressive outbursts towards family members. He is much calmer but sleeps more and if anything his memory is even worse but this is preferable to the nastiness we have all experienced.
However he has periods of stumbling round the house saying he is dizzy and can't walk he will lie down moaning and saying how unwell he is. Then if someone outside of the family turns up he makes a miraculous recovery and will come into the room as if nothing is wrong!
He also seems to be able to switch this behaviour off and on at random. On a recent Drs visit apart from him continually repeating himself he managed to appear almost his old self - polite witty and friendly then on the way home he lies across the back seat of the car saying he is dizzy and Ill again.
We are all at our wits end to know if he genuinely is ill or if this is part of the disease and almost expected behaviour.
Any thoughts would be gratefully appreciated as we don't want to overlook anything which could be potentially serious but on the other hand we can't visit the Dr every day

 

[Cat27]

It's called hostess mode.
The ability to control their behaviour in front of people always amazes me.

 

[RedLou]

And the ability to try to guilt-trip family members! --It's amazing - can you laugh/joke him out of it? When my father was disconcerted that attention had strayed from him towards someone else (say a friend who was visiting him), he'd develop aches and pains and we found the best tactic was distracting in an amused way - easier when you're not one on one but in a group.

 

[dalmation lady]

Thank you both for your comments we were beginning to doubt the diagnosis- I'm so relieved others have had a similar experience it's just so weird how they can do it though

 

[jasmineflower]

Hi Dalmation Lady, my father in law regularly phones us in the middle of the night or very early in the morning to say he's "very unwell" or thinks he's dying. I've been up at A&E with him and to the GP and they've found nothing wrong. Often even a few minutes later he can be absolutely fine again. It's quite distressing as the last thing you want to do is miss something important, but it gets very tiring.

 

[canary]

I suspect that when they say they feel ill they are subconsciously aware that there is something wrong, but dont know what. I have heard my MIL, my Mum and OH all say this at different times.
The "hostess" mode amazes me too, but they cant maintain it for long and it takes a great deal of effort, so they are usually really tired afterwards and if the visitor were there for longer than a few hours they would start to see it slip.....

 

[dalmation lady]

Thank you I feel so much better knowing that others are experiencing similar