How to handle the daily hallucinations

BooBoo2

The hallucinations my DW has been experiencing the last 4 weeks have become more frequent. The occasional “hearing & seeing” a girl calling out her name are occurring every day. She says the girl is coming into our house in the late evening- about 11:00- & my DW needs to be with her to keep her safe & play together. DW will turn on all outside lights & lights in hallway & family room so the girl is safe. DW stays up until 2:00 & then goes to sleep (could be in bed, 2nd bedroom or living room.) When she gets up after sleeping 8 hours - I ask how her night was & she has no recollection of the night. I’ve been agreeing most of the time during the daylight hours but not sure how to handle the night ventures. I’ve approached her when the evening ventures start & said we need to go to bed but she gets agitated & I back off. What should I do to safely handle this? We are approaching 7 years in this journey!

May flowers

If there is no safety issue or causing her anxiety, I think I would just let it be (unless it’s interfering with your sleep).

Otherwise, medication may be needed. My FIL takes risperdone and it has really helped with the agitation and hallucinations but we still have some - his occur from 2-5 in the afternoon and we cannot reason with him, validate, or reassure him or he gets more upset. So we let him vent, holler and fuss, and as long as we don’t say a word,  he eventually calms.  If we say anything, he gets more upset. Such a perplexing disease. Our nurse says it’s sundowning, and can happen any time of day or night.

mommyandme (m&m)

Sorry you’re having these struggles.  Can you hire a night time aid for some relief at least few days a week?  You need some worry free sleep yourself.

quartlow2

I would worry about her leaving the house in the middle of the night. Maybe you've already addressed this? If not, there are several options: 1) find a MC facility for her and spend as much time there with her as possible; 2) change the door knobs, on your outside doors, to lock with a key from the inside and keep the key hidden from her; 3) hire an overnight caregiver.

zauberflote

BooBoo I'm sorry you're going through this; it must be disrupting your sleep too. I don't have much experience in hallucinations. MIL's were very benign, or at least she seemed not the least upset-- she'd see people in the windows of the house out her bedroom window. I never could see them, and she was mostly blind, so it must have been a mild hallucination. My mom had only one that I was aware of, and it made a real impression on me. We were doing a little Tucks treatment for some Depends-related irritations. She was standing leaning on me while I provided care (for my first time, although MC had been caring for this for a little while). When we got all put back together, she pointed at the floor next to my leg and asked if I'd seen the little girl standing there. I hadn't, but ascertained that while the little girl may have been unhappy before, she was fine now, and also wasn't there any more. It seemed clear as day to me that this little girl was my mother, in the age which Mom was most often living-- a small child barely toilet trained to whom the most important thing in life was not to wet or soil herself, because good girls didn't do that in 1928 or so. 

If your DW is not disturbed by her young visitor, perhaps it's okay to leave well enough alone. Maybe DW is passing on to her young self the loving care you are giving her earlier in the day.