Sundowning?

[1954]

What an awful time you are going through. I don't know how you cope. Does MIL get any respite? Or Day Centre?

 

[lin1]

Wow I am very impressed with your Gp.
The practice seems to be really on the ball.

Mum was on Lorazepam and it did help most of the time

I hope you have all had a blissful nights sleep.

 

[Ann Mac]

What an awful time you are going through. I don't know how you cope. Does MIL get any respite? Or Day Centre?

Nothing in place , yet - though the memory clinic and SW are working to get something sorted .

Another good night (in comparison to the previous several! ). Again, around 5pm, there were some small signs that she was starting to 'build', meds given, and thankfully, again it didn't go anywhere major. There were still some indications that she was wanting to be confrontational, but they were very easy to deflect and it was easy to distract. She seemed even more confused than usual (if that's possible) though - and had re-written the history of the last 2 or 3 days completely, and in some instances, bizarrely - from her being convinced she had had a phone call, telling her that her brother has passed away (he is fine!), through to - very upsetting - she kept going over and over the 'bad night' and in a very short space of time went from saying that 'Its a wonder one of you didn't slap me', to 'I deserved a good slap' to saying that hubby had actually hit her He absolutely hadn't - but reassuring her on that, and about her brother still being alive and well, made no difference to her convictions, so we just kept distracting - its odd, because you would expect her to be extremely upset over both these beliefs, but she wasn't - she was very matter of fact, and just said both (and a few other things) with no more concern than as if she was discussing the weather. She was also convinced that this 'new tablet' is going to make her memory better and she will be 'going home' soon. We avoided responding to that one completely!

By 8pm, she was really struggling to stay awake and saying she wanted to go to bed. Off she went, and we half thought she would be down within the hour and we might get some upset - but no, didn't hear her move till about 5a.m., when she went to the loo - and she went back to bed then, and is still there!

 

[Witzend]

Thank you Granny G

Just for curiosity's sake, does this 'go' when a person enters the latter stages? The people I cared for in the home didn't seem to display this, though in virtually all cases they had no variance in their level of confusion, as Mil does - they rarely had any grasp of reality or their situation. Is it something that only affects those that have some degree of occasional insight?

In my mother's case it did pass eventually, though it took quite a while, and it did not happen until her dementia was worse.

I used to find that the paranoid accusations had usually been triggered by something she'd seen or heard, which was then all mixed up with other stuff in her head. It would often take quite a bit of detective work to fathom it, but then I'd think, 'Oh, YES! So that was what kicked it off.'

At one point she became obsessed with the idea that her sister had 'stolen' their mother's house. She constantly said the most awful things about my poor aunt. The house had in fact been sold decades before, and all the siblings had shared the inheritance.

What triggered the obsession (I concluded) was a very rare visit to the sister's much newer house, where there were a few items that had come from their childhood home - she had remarked on them at the time. In her poor old head this of course meant that this WAS their childhood home, and her dastardly scheming sister had somehow got her grasping hands on it.

Of course nothing I said could convince her, and I eventually started saying, yes, tut tut, how dreadful, I'll get on to a solicitor first thing tomorrow. That at least used to stop it for a while.

 

[Ann Mac]

Thanks Witzend - sometimes, when she comes out with an accusation, or relates a recent event that has never happened, straight away I can latch onto where it stems from - other times it either takes a lot of thinking through before it hits me, or I can't work it out at all. I think you are right in that something she has seen or heard is generally the trigger, though.

I think now that what we thought (hoped) was the initial effect of the meds was more down the her exhausted state at the time of taking it We had another bad day yesterday - I thought she was showing all the signs at 8 a.m. yesterday morning, and warned hubby before I went to work. By 1pm, she was in full flow, apparently, and managed to get to the phone whilst he was in the bathroom - another police visit, as she rang them and reported that her son was holding her prisoner, so he could take her money. She just kept getting higher and higher, and after Hubby checked with GP for advice, he gave her the lorazepan at 3pm - but she wouldn't take it till he phoned me and I could tell her it was safe! It seemed poor hubs was again the 'bad guy' yesterday, so I left work early to give a hand. I can't say she was exactly 'nice' to me, though she was far more responsive to anything I said, but even so, it took till 9.30 last night before she 'came out of it' - again, apologies, ashamed and upset, lots of reassurance needed - then 20 minutes later, she had relegated the day to the status of a funny story, and found the whole thing quite amusing. She toddled off to bed, quite happy at around 10pm, and we've had a peaceful night - thankfully.

The house is now like Fort Knox, and its getting to be a habit to unplug the phone and hide it, as soon as we see any indication that she is about to 'Do a Jeckyll and Hyde', as my son succinctly phrased it, or before we go to bed.

If this med hasn't worked, then I don't have a clue where we go from here

 

[taskerrose]

My dad suffers sundowning its worse now the nights are drawing in I have found if you close the curtains before dusk and leave a low light one(not bright as this makes them worse) switch of the telly and play soothing music it helps him to ADUST from day to night without the stress I would also ban visitors so far this seems to be working he is starting to get into a routine and winding down for the night we also found that switching his night time meds to earlier also gas helped

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