Re: My 83 year old Father Blind with LBD - What can I expect

[Guest guest]

-

Welcome to the caregivers group. I would like to answer your questions, and

this is only my opinion. I found that there was no talking my dad out of his

delusions and hallucinations. I never tried in fact. They were believable to

him. It would be as if someone were to tell me I wasn't at my computer typing

this post to you. It just is and there is no way of getting around it. I found

it much easier on myself and my dad to go along with what had 'happened'.

Validate his vision. Then try to move on and/or redirect his attention to

something else. As a caregiver it is one of the toughest jobs I had even had.

There was constant caring, fixing things, helping dad back into his apartment as

'someone' had locked him out (when in reality he had misplaced his keys). The

stories go on and on. This may well be one heck of a roller coaster ride.

Moods, bahaviors, situations, all can fluctuate from day to day and even moment

to moment. You may find that medications either help or hinder your dads days.

Some mediations are very helpful in slowing down LBD, others will cause more

problems than previously had. There are no guarantees and no definites. There

are true mirrored images with LBD, and so many differences. At this point in my

post I wish I had some wonderful words of wisdom, some type of magical words to

help you through this - there just aren't any. I would suggest however, to

continue to post and ask questions as with that you will find you are not alone

in this journey and with that it is managable.

I wish you the very best and will add you to my ever growing prayer list.

Sending hugs from Iowa-

Sandie

dad - Merle Lambert passed away from LBD 9-20-02

[Guest guest]

Hello ,

I'd be very interested to know what meds your father is taking.

As for the hallucinations, your father insisting that he " sees " things and

arguing HIS facts might I suggest that you stop trying to be logical with

your father. LBD is a nasty disease that takes all logic away from those

who must live with it.

As caregivers, I think we are very tempted to try to make our LO see the

error of their ways - or thinking in this case - but we are asking the

impossible of them. Do we correct them for their sakes or for ours? I

suppose what I'm trying to say (and probably not very well here) is that you

will find things easier to handle and your father as well if you just roll

with it. I know its hard, but more often than not our LO's can't even

remeber half of the conversations they have had in a day.

Sending you strength.

Courage

My 83 year old Father Blind with LBD - What can I

expect

>

>I just joined the LBD today. My father has become blind gradually

>over the last 5 years. He was diagnosed with LBD about 5 months ago.

>

>The drugs he has been given have controlled ths situation. But this

>week in came back in spades. He has been know to be a very

>intelligent professional man. To hear him talking

>about " rediculous " items he sees is very hard to understand. He

>truly beleives he sees these items and it is impossible to convince

>him otherwise. He has contract caregivers looking after him part of

>the time and they have even said that they can not handle him any

>more.

>

>I have 3 questions:

>

>1) As I say, he is blind, but he state he " sees " these images.

>Does any one have experience on how to explain to him that as he is

>blind it is impossible for him to see these things

>

>2) Although he has halucinations daily, these are not very

>disturbing. It has only been extreme 4 times so far where for about

>2 days he is completley out of it and reacting by responding and

>talking to the images. Is it possible he will have such a server

>episode and not come our it? Or do I expect that ther will be more

>prevalent severe episodes occuring?

>

>3) As a caregiver, how do you keep your sanity when he is arguing

>some thing has occurred that you know has not happened. I assume if

>he could see, convincing him would be easier. As example is when he

>claims someone has stolen his 30 year old coffee table and replaced

>it with a similar but smaller version. This is exasparating.

>

>

>

>

>

>Welcome to LBDcaregivers.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hello , and welcome. I'm so sorry to hear about your father.

His blindness likely does make things much more difficult for you.

But I don't think it makes what he 'sees' any less real for him.

My dad was just recently diagnosed with this very strange disease.

While he is not blind, there is no amount of 'seeing' that can make

him believe that what he insists is real, is not.

Awhile back, his wife called because he was very agitated, believed

he was supposed to be working but wasn't sure what he was supposed

to be doing. When I spoke to him on the phone, he first said he was

in a trailer. That progressed to being in a railcar. Telling him to

look outside the window and see that this wasn't so made no

difference at all. I described his surroundings, told him that his

dog was there, so therefore he couldn't possibly be where he thought

he was. But he looked outside, and outside was going on with his

delusions. He saw his dog, called her over and she came, but this

dog he saw was not his, he insisted that his looked different.

For a long time I thought if I could just convince him, show him

that what he was seeing wasn't real, that he'd come back, that this

nightmare would just go away.

Since then, and after doing some research on the subject, I've

concluded that this just isn't going to work. He sees what he sees,

and no amount of reason will talk him out of suffering from this

disease. Sadly, it's just going to get worse. We're learning to

treasure each day that he's almost like himself, because we know it

won't last forever.

Fortunately for us, my dad isn't terribly disturbed by his

hallucinations. He remembers children being there, and wonders where

they all went when he enters a room, or walks into his bedroom and

comes out again to ask why all these people are in his bed. But

there really isn't anything scary to him. He even has a friend named

Dave that he talks about, who doesn't actually exist.

As for dealing with him when he's very agitated, I just try to play

along. Recently when I went to visit him, he took me aside to tell

me he had to leave town because the folks who owned his apartment

were just letting him stay there for awhile and were probably going

to kick him out soon. I just told him that they couldn't kick him

out without my approval, that I was looking after all that and that

I would take care of it. " Oh! " he said. " I didn't know that! Problem

solved! "

Of course it isn't always that easy. But from my experience, you

have to just play along with what he believes he sees. I do try to

change the subject when this is going on - 'oh, that's good. What

time do you want to go shopping tomorrow? " Sometimes it works and

sometimes it doesn't.

Exasperating isn't even an adequate word to describe the situation,

is it? For the coffee table, someone else had suggested that you

remove the table and bring it back in again. That worked in a

similiar situation for us. Dad walked into the room and asked his

wife Jane, where Jane was. She replied she was right there. " No not

you, the other one, " he said. He was even going to the door of the

apartment and looking down the hall to see if she was coming.

Finally she got up and went to the door, opened it and closed it as

though she were coming in. She came into the living room and said

hi, like she had been out. That solved it. " Oh, where were you all

this time? " he asked. " I was really worried! "

Best of luck to you...hang in there!

KD

>

> I just joined the LBD today. My father has become blind gradually

> over the last 5 years. He was diagnosed with LBD about 5 months

ago.

>

> The drugs he has been given have controlled ths situation. But

this

> week in came back in spades. He has been know to be a very

> intelligent professional man. To hear him talking

> about " rediculous " items he sees is very hard to understand. He

> truly beleives he sees these items and it is impossible to

convince

> him otherwise. He has contract caregivers looking after him part

of

> the time and they have even said that they can not handle him any

> more.

>

> I have 3 questions:

>

> 1) As I say, he is blind, but he state he " sees " these images.

> Does any one have experience on how to explain to him that as he

is

> blind it is impossible for him to see these things

>

> 2) Although he has halucinations daily, these are not very

> disturbing. It has only been extreme 4 times so far where for

about

> 2 days he is completley out of it and reacting by responding and

> talking to the images. Is it possible he will have such a server

> episode and not come our it? Or do I expect that ther will be

more

> prevalent severe episodes occuring?

>

> 3) As a caregiver, how do you keep your sanity when he is arguing

> some thing has occurred that you know has not happened. I assume

if

> he could see, convincing him would be easier. As example is when

he

> claims someone has stolen his 30 year old coffee table and

replaced

> it with a similar but smaller version. This is exasparating.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Welcome to the group.

I cannot give any answer to the first question.

The second one: My mother always came out of the hallucinations. The doctor

never said that she wouldn't so I am guessing that normally they do come out

of them.Definitely something I would ask the doctor.

3rd question: We just tried to tell her just because we didnt see it didnt

mean that it wasnt there. We also tried to change the subject a lot. There

were even times after my mother had the hallucinations that she would be

lucid and remember that she saw things. But most of the time she didnt

remember. Just don't argue with them. Let them know that you understand

their frustration. They are scared and anxious. Just like we are.

M

>

>Reply-To: LBDcaregivers

>To: LBDcaregivers

>Subject: My 83 year old Father Blind with LBD - What can I

>expect

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>

>I just joined the LBD today. My father has become blind gradually

>over the last 5 years. He was diagnosed with LBD about 5 months ago.

>

>The drugs he has been given have controlled ths situation. But this

>week in came back in spades. He has been know to be a very

>intelligent professional man. To hear him talking

>about " rediculous " items he sees is very hard to understand. He

>truly beleives he sees these items and it is impossible to convince

>him otherwise. He has contract caregivers looking after him part of

>the time and they have even said that they can not handle him any

>more.

>

>I have 3 questions:

>

>1) As I say, he is blind, but he state he " sees " these images.

>Does any one have experience on how to explain to him that as he is

>blind it is impossible for him to see these things

>

>2) Although he has halucinations daily, these are not very

>disturbing. It has only been extreme 4 times so far where for about

>2 days he is completley out of it and reacting by responding and

>talking to the images. Is it possible he will have such a server

>episode and not come our it? Or do I expect that ther will be more

>prevalent severe episodes occuring?

>

>3) As a caregiver, how do you keep your sanity when he is arguing

>some thing has occurred that you know has not happened. I assume if

>he could see, convincing him would be easier. As example is when he

>claims someone has stolen his 30 year old coffee table and replaced

>it with a similar but smaller version. This is exasparating.

>

>

>

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