After this evening’s dinner we rolled Lewy into the living room to settle him back down in his recliner. Getting him up out of the wheelchair was particularly hard and getting him to rotate the required 90 degrees to position his butt over the recliner was even harder. But we managed to get Lewy in his chair without incident.
Now that Lewy was settled Hubbie and I went back in the kitchen to clean up the dishes and put away the leftovers. We had gotten about half way through this ritual when I noticed Lewy was standing up in the middle of the living room.
“Where you going Daddy?’
“To the bathroom”.
I took the opportunity to leave the kitchen duties to Hubbie by going to get Lewy his walker. He took hold of it, indicated he was OK, and began to head towards the bathroom. I went back to the kitchen. Several minutes later, I noticed that Lewy had not gotten any farther than when I left him. I went over to check on him. He said he was seeing things.
“What sort of things?” I’m wondering what could be so strange that Lewy would recognize it as a hallucination.
“I’m dizzy”.
Hubbie came running over with the wheelchair. We got Lewy to sit. I wheeled him to the bathroom door…as far as the chair will go…put his walker in the room in front of him, turned 90 degrees from normal, just the way Lewy likes it. I told him to sit there until he felt better, then he could get up to go to the bathroom. I went to my recliner, sat down and had a pooch, the long haired mutt named Tweak, in my lap within seconds.
Tweak was just getting good and stretched out from a belly rubbing when I heard Lewy say something from the bathroom. I made Tweak get down - nothing she was too happy about. I went see what was going on. Lewy was standing in the same place just inside the bathroom with his pants pulled down around his knees.
“What’s going on Daddy?”
“How do you turn this thing on?”
“What thing?”
“This walker. Where do you turn it on?”
At this point I notice that Lewy’s teeth are in the sink, and he had poured out the water in his tooth cup, and was holding the cup in his hand.
I reached for the tooth cup. Lewy jerked it back saying he was going to use it. “Oh no! You’re not…You are not peeing in your tooth cup.”
“Well where’s my cup? Over there by the commode, Lewy.”
“Oh, OK”….He started shaking the walker. “Where do you turn this thing on?”
“You don’t turn it on. It operates manually.”
“Where’s the faucet on it?”
At some point, usually later than it should be…I have to realize I am not talking to Daddy, but to Lewy.
“The faucet is over there by the toilet.”
“How do you turn this thing on?”
“You flip that little thing right there, and that makes it go.”
Lewy reached out and fiddled with the lever that makes the walker fold up for a minute or two, then said “Oh I see”.
He then “started” the walker and made it over to the toilet and back out in record time carrying the walker about 6 inches above the floor, out in front of him. “This works better this way.”
“Yes….apparently it does. Have a seat Daddy. Let me get your pills.”
“Where do you want me to park this?’
“How ‘bout I put it in the garage for you? Come on…have a seat.
4 Comments:
Stella said...
I was asked recently to drive my loved ones bed. When I told him I didn't know how, he said that I used to drive it. I told him I am too old now. He reminded me [correctly] that I am 85 years old so I didn't need to try. He thought we would just leave it where it is and let's sleep in the woods tonight. With that he turned over and went to sleep.
Ann Jones said...
I need help.... my mother is 64 and has just been diagnosed with multi - infarct dementia with Lewy body .... Is that worse than regular lewy body ????She has been sectioned for the last 10 weeks in a psych unit because she was mis diagnosed and given Serequel , Respiradol, Diazipan ,ect...These are the devils drugs when you have dementia .....We are finding it diffuclt to get straight answers ...she has been very confused but this weekend she has started having hallucinations , seeing dead people ect.... is this significant ?? an mri scan has shwn she has had 2 strokes and a heart attack ....how long is the average life expectancy ???I hate this illness , it has robbed me of my mother .... she is gone but still here ... i miss her
Pauline said...
Ann,
I really cannot answer your question about the multi-infarct dementia. I've never heard of it. My personal opinion is a psych unit is not where a person with LDB needs to be. I have found that telling my Dad when things he sees are hallucinations helps. In a psych unit, your mother is just going to be ignored. I do think that an open ward Ahlzhiemers (sp?) unit is appropriate for late stage LBD once they get so far gone they do not know you.
More likely your Mom will slowly decline from the LBD. The other factors no doubt will speed up that process. LBD is as best I can tell an 8-10 year process. We are in year 7 at least.
I wish I could answer your questions. But LBD is a bit of a mystery.
pearose said...
Multi-infarct dementia is typically damage from strokes. When the stroke occurs, brain matter dies. Unlike other types of dementia, there aren't steps leading into the decline - it is an immediate change. Lewy Body Dementia and Alzheimer's type dementia have a long decline that can occur over quite a few years and the family loses them several times over because of the person's lack of ability to recognize their own family. However, as Pauline has written about, there are windows of time when the person is totally aware - but those times become fewer and farther between.