Hi,
Just wondered if this rings bells with anyone. My Mum is 83, was diagnosed with AD three years ago, and has been in a CH for 18 months. She has never accepted being in care and every visit I have made (once + per week) she asks to go home, or to come home with me and has been almost constantly upset and forever saying how awful the CH is and the other people in it. A couple of months ago she had a general anaesthetic after trapping her finger in a door and since then her behaviour has changed dramatically. I can best describe it as she seems possessed by demons. She no longer knows me, even when I explain who I am, she twitches, she will rarely eat, but worst of all she shrieks at the top of her voice for no reason - things like “Stop that, hey, awful, I’ll kill you”. Other than “want to go home” this is pretty much all she says now. She also throws things, including cups of tea, and claps her hands repeatedly, and slaps tables and chairs, the staff, and me. It seems she can’t control this, and sometimes afterwards she says sorry.
At first I thought she was reliving the pain she was in when she trapped her finger, but things have gone on and on and are getting worse and worse. Perhaps the general anaesthetic has made things worse. I know that no two people with AD are the same, and this is probably just another phase Mum is going through, but it is so hard watching her like this, in obvious torment. She is on Mirtazepene (maximum dose) and Trazodone to keep her calm but it doesn’t seem to be working.
Thanks,
Carolyn
