Yesterday morning about 11:15 I got a call from Mountain Valley telling me that Dad had not slept all night, had been agitated all morning, and had fallen. I got out there by noon and was able to calm him down. When I arrived, he was trying to get in another resident’s room where he said there was some blue spaghetti. Kate was with me. We distracted him and took him to a private dining room where we were able to talk. We were able to carry on a conversation; however, he was talking about things that happened the night before. Those things had not really occurred. In addition, he was seeing people and things in the room with us. At the recommendation of the director of nursing, we took him to the hospital where we spent 6 hours in the ER. They could find nothing wrong except for his delusional behavior which continued the entire time. An ambulance to him back to Mountain Valley at 10:00 pm. I called the nurse on duty, Leslie, and told her he would need a sedative in order for him to get some sleep. They did so, and he slept all night. I went out to see him after leaving the Y this morning. They said they had been unable to get him up. I told them I wasn’t surprised and to let him sleep through the morning. They are going to try to give him some lunch. To the best of my knowledge he hasn’t eaten since Wednesday night when I was with him. I know he didn’t have lunch or dinner yesterday and was missing breakfast this morning.
The doctor’s diagnosis was simply that this is a part of the progression that dementia takes. I want to believe this and can accept it, but it came on so suddenly that it makes you wonder if something more specific occurred to bring it on. I do know that I see other residents on Dad’s hall that seem to have delusions, but they are at a more advanced stage of dementia than he is. I am anxious to see what he is like when he wakes up.
