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Delusions, Hallucinations, Dreams, and Paranoia

It is common for people with dementia to experience delusions, hallucinations, dreams, and paranoia. From time to time I have mentioned some of Kate’s experiences with them. They appear to becoming a regular part of our lives.

One of the most common is believing there are other people in the house. I usually discover this when she puts her finger to her lips and very softly says, “Shhhh.” Other times she makes references to “them.” I have never figured out who they are, but sometimes, like yesterday, she explains that they will hear us and “spread the word.” She went on to say how they like to gossip. I told her I didn’t think there was anything bad that anyone might say about her. She thought I was naïve. We were in the car on the way to dinner, and it wasn’t until we got to the restaurant that she was diverted to other things.

When we arrived home, she stopped to look at something on top of the dryer. She put her finger on several places. Then she told me she couldn’t catch them. I didn’t go back to look, but I didn’t see anything as we walked through the laundry room.

Something else is becoming more common. It is the little “thingies” in her hair, around her eyes, and between her toes. Running her fingers between her toes has become as much a focus of attention as pulling her hair. After she was in bed last night, she called my attention to something new. She thought “they” were on various parts of her body. She was trying to rub them off. I asked if they were painful. She said they weren’t. She rubbed her finger across her chest. Then she held her finger up and said, “See.” I told her they were quite small. Fortunately, her concern didn’t last long. I think that coincided with my starting a YouTube video of a Julie Andrews concert. She focused her attention on that. I’ve read about other caregivers using diversion techniques to solve problems like this. I am now grasping the value of that with Kate. Since memory doesn’t last long, redirecting attention often works.

Talking in her dreams is also more frequent. Prior to Alzheimer’s, I don’t recall her having these experiences. They don’t occur with any regularity. They are periodic and there have been a couple of themes. In the early years after her diagnosis, they focused on her classroom and/or library experience. She explained or gave instructions to her students. That disappeared long ago. I take that as a consequence of her loss of those memories.

More recently, her dreams have dealt with young girls or women who live in impoverished circumstances. They include her work with a program to provide education for them or to establish such a program. One of those occurred two nights ago when I got into bed. I thought she was asleep, but she started talking to me about our working together to create a program that would help people in need. I could never figure out exactly what she wanted to do but told her I would help in any way that I could. This conversation lasted fifteen minutes or so. I am pretty sure that she was awake. That makes me think about the difference between hallucinations and dreams. I suppose I would use the term hallucination if it is an experience she has when awake. The same experience while she is awake would be a dream. Whatever the definition, Kate has more of these experiences than she has before.

Most of these experiences do not bother me. The ones that do are those that disturb Kate. The most common type involves other people who might be out to do some harm to her. So far, these experiences have only involved her belief that people are saying or would say bad things about her. As we were about to leave the house last night for dinner, she was frightened by something and held herself close to me. She didn’t want to talk about. Then later while she was brushing her teeth, she insisted I remain right beside her while she brushed her teeth. It wasn’t said in anger, but fear. I wonder what lies ahead.

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Our Roughest Day, But, Again, a Nice Finish

Yesterday, as I walked out of the bathroom to get dressed, Kate said, “Hello.” I went over to the bed. She was uneasy. It turned out that she had awakened while I was in the bathroom and didn’t know where I was. Several times over the next ten minutes or so, she said, “I didn’t know where you were. I thought I had done something wrong.” (She is very sensitive about doing the right thing.) I took her to the bathroom. She was very unsure of herself and needed my help even more than usual. She was still emotional when I took her back to bed.

It was no surprise that she wanted me to stay with her. I got in bed with her and stayed for another thirty minutes. She seemed calm though not asleep. I told her I was thinking about getting dressed and having breakfast and then returning to the bedroom and working in the chair beside her side of the bed. She said that was fine. I was encouraged.

Less than an hour later, she started to get up. She wanted to go to the bathroom again. This time she took a shower and then rested in bed for almost another hour. I don’t recall anything unusual until just before we left for Panera. She said she felt a little sick. Then she said, “Maybe I’m just hungry.” On the way, she was talkative, but she had much more trouble than usual speaking her words correctly. In addition, I was clear about the content of what she was saying. She was delusional. She mentioned people we were meeting or had been with. I really couldn’t make sense of what she was saying. At Panera and on the way home, she exhibited the same symptoms. They were noticeably more severe than in the past. Before finishing her muffin, she took it off her plate and set it on the table. Then she picked up every crumb that was on the plate until it was spotless. This is something I have seen her do a few other times. Occasionally, she does the same thing with the table top.

I began to wonder if she might have had a TIA, but the only symptoms she had were ones that she has had before, and they didn’t seem to be like those we generally associate with a stroke. Nevertheless, I gave her four baby aspirin as soon as we got in the house. She was very tired and lay down on the sofa.

Only minutes later, the sitter arrived. I met her outside and explained what was going on and encouraged her to call me if she needed anything while I was gone. I didn’t hear from her and felt that was a good sign. Generally, by lunch problems like these would be gone. When I returned, she was resting on the sofa. Cindy told me she had eaten a good lunch and had been resting since they returned home.

After Cindy left, I asked Kate if she would like to look at one of her photo books or read something. When I mentioned Anne Frank’s diary, she expressed interest. I picked up the book and sat beside her on the sofa. I read several entries before she said she was tired. She rested about thirty minutes before I suggested that we go to dinner. She was still very tired but got up without a problem.

She was talkative on the way to the restaurant. Once again, however, I had difficulty understanding what she said. I know it involved other people that she thought I knew. She also had trouble with her words. At one point, she said something about “blee.” I finally realized she meant blue.

We sat in a booth at the restaurant, and she wanted me to sit beside her. That happens much more now. She had two cheese burritos. She still had one remaining when I finished my meal. I had cut the first one into bite-size pieces. She tried to do the same with the second one. I offered to help. Instead of eating them, she started moving them around on her plate using her fingers. It soon became clear that she was creating a “work of art.” She tried to explain, but I couldn’t fully understand except that she wanted me to take a picture of the plate of these pieces. She wanted one picture of the plate and piece alone and one with her in the photo. I obliged her.

When we walked up to the counter to pay, there were two other people in line in front of us. Kate was restless. She didn’t understand what they were doing and wanted me to go ahead of them. I explained a couple of times that we needed to wait until they were finished. The woman immediately ahead of us had opened the door to leave when Kate called to her. The woman stopped and looked around. Kate asked her if she would take a picture of the two of us. By now there was another waiting behind me. I started to tell Kate that we should let the woman go. Then I agreed. I told the man behind us to go ahead, but he said he could wait. The woman took our picture. I paid the check, and we headed home.

Typically, I would turn on the news after we are home, but I didn’t last night. It had been an unusual day for Kate. She seemed very tired. Her speech might have been a little better than it was in the morning but not significantly. I thought it was a good time to refocus her attention. I went back to YouTube. We watched a playlist we had seen before and liked. As it did the night before, the music captured her attention from the time I turned it on until I turned it off.

Even better is the fact that today (as of 2:45), I haven’t seen any of the same symptoms that she displayed yesterday.

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Morning Hallucination

As I was finishing my previous post, I heard Kate talking on the video cam. I walked into the bedroom and saw that she was lying on her side facing my side of the bed. She seemed to be watching something that moved from place to place. She said something like, “I see you. There you are,” and she moved her hands from one spot to another as if she were trying to catch whatever it was.

She saw me and smiled. I told her it was nice to see that smile. She looked at my shirt, and said, “I like that. They have them every year.” It was clear to me that she was having one of her “dreaming while awake” experiences. Maybe it’s better to say she was hallucinating. I stayed with her a few minutes and then asked if she wanted to get up or rest a little longer. She said, “I think I’ll just stay here a while.” I told her I would be in the kitchen if she needed me.

She continued to talk off and on for the next fifteen minutes or so. I haven’t heard anything for a while. She must have fallen asleep.

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Saturday Afternoon Conversation

 

Kate and I had a pleasant day yesterday though she was somewhat confused about where she was for an extended period of time. She also experienced some delusional behavior during the afternoon. Here is a sample of some of the things she said.

As we walked into the family room after lunch, she said, “I remember being here before.”

As usual, she rested and actually went to sleep. She woke up and said, “It’s really nice to be back here.” I said, “Yes, it is.” She said, “You know I was born here, don’t you?”

A few minutes later she said, “It’s a nice place. The owner has done a lot of things.” I asked, “Do you know the owner? She said, “I think I am one of them.”

She moved from the recliner to the sofa to rest a little more. Off and on for an hour she made numerous comments. I jotted down a few of them. In each case, she seemed to be talking with someone else, not me. She often does this while sleeping at night, and sometimes responds to me if I speak to her. Yesterday’s experience was different. It was much more like something I reported on a week or so ago. She was awake but talked in a style that was more like she was dreaming. Her eyes were open and displayed nothing that would suggest she was asleep. She also talks to herself. It was more like that except that I was just a few feet away from her. What she said frequently seemed out of context as though I were hearing her side of the conversation and not the person with whom she was speaking. Here are a few examples.

“She said we could stay this night and see what we like about it.”

“I think I will close my eyes, but not for long. Then I will get up and make some friends.”

Looking up at the ceiling and laughed she said, “I can see you. . . Oh, look.” She was pointing to the trees out back.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could sleep here.? That would be nice.”

“I like this room.” <pause> “You know, this is bigger than I thought.”

“Yeah, I like this place.”

“Do you live here? <pause> I don’t remember her name.” (She chuckles.) “Yeah.”

“Well.” <pause> “Uh huh.” (She chuckles.)

“It looks so pretty out there. Those tall trees. I don’t know what that blue thing is. That real pretty blue. Can you see it?  <pause> Uh huh, right over there. You got it.”

“I’ll just rest here a while.” “Yeah, we’ll come back. You’ve been so nice.”

“That girl over there talked with us a little. She lives here. <pause> To live here. That would be fantastic. We’ll just have to see.”

“My goodness, when did you come in. You’re a pretty lady. <pause> Uh huh. There are a lot of people here.”

I wondered what she would be like when I got her up for dinner. She seemed normal. I didn’t notice anything during or after dinner that was like the way she was in the afternoon. It reminds me somewhat of the urinary tract infections that my dad used to get during his time in a skilled nursing facility except that she exhibits the symptoms so infrequently. This was only the second time she has been like this other than when she is sleeping at night or when I am in another room. I will be watching out for any further signs and be prepared to contact her doctor if I think it is necessary.

 

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Problems with Toes, Teeth, and Hair

Kate’s “hair-pulling” is an old story, but I’ve said less about her toes and teeth. They are beginning to play a more prominent role in her personal care. Let me tell you about an episode earlier this week.

It was a very good day. Kate got up to go to the bathroom around 5:30 and went to bed. She got up around 7:30, and we went to Panera shortly after 8:00. We came back to the house and relaxed until lunch. She was in a good mood. We had a nice conversation at lunch. The sitter came at 1:00. Kate received her warmly and didn’t seem disturbed in the least when I left. She was happy to see me when I returned but didn’t express any sense of relief as she has on a few occasions. We had a good experience at dinner.

While we were eating, she told me she was likely to get to bed early. I didn’t think much about it since she often says that but doesn’t get in bed. I have to admit, however, that she has been getting into bed earlier lately now that she hasn’t been occupied with her iPad. That night was one of those times.

First, she went to the bathroom. She spent 20-30 minutes “brushing” her teeth. She didn’t really brush them all that time. Much of the time she was rinsing her mouth with water and using her fingernails like dental floss. She always feels like she has food caught between her teeth. I often help her with flossing, but that doesn’t seem to work. She finally gave up and came back to go to bed. I got her nightly meds and helped her get into her night clothes.

She was disturbed about her teeth. She mentioned she hadn’t been able to get all the “bees” out. She followed that by other words that didn’t fit what she meant. She was talking about something in her teeth. She also talks the same way about things between her toes and in her hair. Sometimes she refers to them as “these little things” and says they are “smart.” She says they know when you’re trying to get them. I was able to calm her by talking to her softly and telling her I would help her. That is when she focused her attention on her toes. She wanted me to get a towel or wash cloth and get “them” out. I followed her instructions, and she felt better.

Then she got in bed and started pulling her hair. It wasn’t long before she became frustrated. She said she was tired and hadn’t been able to finish and would have to do it tomorrow. A few minutes later, she asked me to come over and pull her hair for her. I did that for a couple of minutes before reminding her she was going to rest and work on her hair in the morning. She said I was right that she needed the rest and thanked me for helping her. She was fine after that; however, I don’t expect this to be our last episode with “them.”

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Dreams, Delusions and Hallucinations

Here’s another post in which I will never be able to capture the details. Let me start and see where it goes but understand you will not be getting the whole story.

Kate has talked in her sleep off and on during her life with Alzheimer’s. In the early years, the focus was almost always her teaching and library career. Most, if not all these experiences, involved her speaking to students. She was very deliberate in what she was telling them. Her memories of those days faded away long ago, but she continued her talking just in different situations.

Yesterday morning at 3:00 she had another “dream” experience similar to one she had a week or two ago. She seemed wide awake and very clear-headed. She wanted to go to the bathroom. On the way and back to bed, she looked and sounded normal but she appeared to be “dreaming while awake.” That’s hard to describe, but she talked as though we were someplace away from home. She mentioned other people. Then she said, “What do we have planned for tonight?” I told her we were going to have dinner at Casa Bella. She asked if we were going with anybody. I told her we would go by ourselves and sit with the same people with whom we usually sit. She was pleased we were going by ourselves although I thought she missed the fact that we would sit with others.

I thought that was it, but after we were in bed we spent the next fifteen minutes or so repeating the same conversation. Then we both went back to sleep. This kind of thing has occurred several times in the past. I think she has a dream about some obligation and is concerned about it. In a couple of instances, it was clear that she thought she had an appointment and needed to get ready. Most often, she just asks the question and the repeats it a number of times without any expression of anxiety.

About 10:15, I noticed that she was sitting up in bed. I went back to see if she wanted to go to the bathroom. She smiled as I got near the bed. It looked like everything was fine. We chatted a few minutes. She said, “Where am I?” When I told her we were at home, she wasn’t satisfied with the answer. She wanted to go home. At first, I told her she was at home, but that didn’t sink in.

I tried to divert her attention by taking her to the family room. She enjoyed seeing all things she usually admires, but she still wanted to go home. She was also tired. I led her back to the bed. She didn’t want me to leave her although she didn’t remember who I was. I brought my laptop and sat with her for another thirty minutes before suggesting that we go to lunch. By that time, she had forgotten about going home, and she didn’t say anything more the rest of the day.

When we got home, she had a brief hallucination as we got out of the car. She pointed to something leaning against the side of the garage. She thought it was a girl. There wasn’t anything I could see that might cause her to think that, but I just went along.

She had another unusual experience after she was in bed. She pointed to the ceiling and mentioned something about the “people over there.” I was never able to make much sense out of what she was saying. Then she said she wanted me to help her understand what was going on. I told her I would be glad to and asked what she needed to know. She pointed around the room and said something I never understood. It was another sign of her aphasia. She used a word that had nothing to do with whatever she meant. I think she was talking about all the objects in the room, but I was never clear. Periodically, she would say, “See them over there.” A couple of times, she mentioned animals in the room.

We got through the night without any special “happenings.” She was up early to go to the bathroom and was in a cheerful mood. She has been back in bed for almost two hours. I noticed on the video cam that she is moving around in bed. I’ll check on her. It’s about time to get her up for lunch. I wonder what’s up for today. Clearly, her brain is making changes. I never know where it will lead.

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Our Strangest Day

It began with yesterday’s “Surprising Conversation.” The rest of the day was filled with strange incidents. I’m sure I would have noticed more if I had been home during the afternoon instead of the sitter.

The first thing I noticed happened as we were walking in the door at Applebee’s for lunch. Kate said she wasn’t sure she would be able to eat anything. That remark and the expression of concern on her face made me think that she might be sick. She walked very hesitantly into the restaurant and took an unusual amount of time to walk up the two steps to the booths where we always sit. She seemed very confused. I asked her if she felt all right. She told me she didn’t feel “all right,” but she wasn’t sick.

She could never explain the problem very well, but it turned out that she thought two people that she and I know were out to get her. When the hostess put the flatware wrapped in a napkin on the table, I unfolded the napkin, placed the knife and fork at her place, and handed the napkin to her. She refused to take it. It seemed she thought “they” had contaminated it in some way. Later when the food arrived, she picked through everything and put some of them on the table beside her. She shredded some of the chicken and said, “See that. They got this too.” She put it on the table as well. It took her a long time to finish her meal, and she didn’t eat all of it. That is unusual, especially recently. I suppose it was her belief about contamination.

Before the sitter arrived, Kate went to the bathroom. Since that is the bathroom that the sitter usually uses, I checked to see if any clean-up was required. I discovered that she had taken one of three artificial tulips out of an arrangement on the counter, torn off the leaves and all the petals of the flower itself. She left them in the sink where it appeared she had washed them.

When Mary arrived, Kate was picking up two ceramic containers that used to have small cacti in them. She filled them with water and started looking for a place to put them. She and Mary had gone outside to find a place as I was preparing to leave. I left, so I don’t know what happened after that. When I got home, I found them in the laundry room sink.

After Mary left, I sat down on the sofa beside Kate. She said, “Is my mother still upstairs?” (We have a single-story house.) I told her that her mother wasn’t here. She said, “Well, where is he?” I said, “Who do you mean?” She said, “You know.” I never figured out who “he” was.

We went to dinner at our regular pizza place. While we waited for the pizza, she  diligently tried to tear her paper napkin into multiple sections. She carefully attempted to make each tear a straight line. As you can imagine, doing that with a paper napkin is almost an impossibility, but she gave it her best effort.

As for eating her pizza, she ate almost every bite of it. I know that doesn’t seem strange, but she has never liked pizza crust or crust on any bread. (She also has a distaste for the peel of fruit like apples, grapes, or tomatoes.) All our servers know that when she eats bread, she eats from the center out to the crust. Recently, I have noticed that she has been eating much closer to the pizza crust. Last night, however, she ate everything. She only left specks on her plate.

As we were preparing for bed, she started looking through the drawers in her bedside table. She also picked up a coaster on top and asked what it was. I explained it to her, but she didn’t understand. When I got out of the shower she had 8-10 things from the drawer spread out on the bed. She was trying to figure out how to use them with the coaster. She wanted me to look to see if she was doing it the right way.

Before calling it a day, she said something about having a big day “tomorrow” and would be leaving early for church. A few minutes later, she asked me what time she should leave. I told her 10:30 would be fine. She said that was later than she wanted and would probably leave by 9:30. I feel sure she was living in a “flashback” to the years she was our church librarian. She gave that up in 2009 because she was beginning to have trouble doing the work the way she knew it should be done. That was a year and a half before her diagnosis.

What I have reported above is just what comes to mind as I write this post. She made other comments throughout the day that indicated she was experiencing delusions or hallucinations. Like so many things, I don’t know how to explain what she was experiencing. I do know that these symptoms are not unusual for people with dementia. For that reason, I don’t feel any sense of alarm. She has had periodic experiences for several years, but this was the first time so many different things have occurred over the course of a one day. I take it as a further sign of her overall decline.

What is in store for today? I am eager to see.

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More Delusions/Hallucinations

Over the past week or two, Kate has experienced more “delusions” than in the past. I’m not actually sure that is the right word. Most often they involve things like a belief that we are somewhere other than our home, that there are other people in the house, and that she sees people or things when nothing is there. When I noticed that she was about to get up yesterday morning, I went to the bedroom. As I approached the bed, she said, “Don’t touch me.” I thought this might be a time when she didn’t recognize me at all, but then she added, “I’ve got a cold.”

As she got out of bed, she insisted that she do it herself without my help. She didn’t want to hold my hand on the way to the bathroom. Once there she continued to be careful about my not touching her because of her cold. What was especially unusual about this was that she has never before shown that kind of concern about spreading her germs to me. I have always been the one to be concerned about passing along a cold to her or her passing along one to me. I didn’t observe any signs of a cold. I didn’t know if she really had one or if she had a dream in which she had a cold.

After finishing in the bathroom, she went back to bed. It was 8:00. She had plenty of time to get back to sleep before getting up for lunch. When I went back to wake her at 10:45, I found that she was awake. This time she didn’t say anything about having a cold. Neither did I see any signs of a cold during the time she was dressing or as we drove to lunch. I didn’t mention anything a cold during lunch, but I did ask if she was feeling well. She said she was fine and never reported any health problem the rest of the day. I am left to believe that her earlier mention of having a cold must have been the result of a dream.

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And More Emotional Experiences

When I arrived home to relieve the sitter on Friday, Mary heard me open the door and told Kate I was home. I walked into the family room. Kate had been resting on the sofa and gotten into a sitting position when she saw me. She had a big smile on her face but immediately burst into tears. She couldn’t stop and continued until after Mary had left. I sat down with her and we hugged. She said, “I’m so glad to see you. I was so worried.” This was the way she had reacted when I returned two weeks ago. There was one big difference. She didn’t recover as quickly. Over the next thirty minutes, she continued to express how happy she was to see me. It wasn’t until we went to dinner that she had fully calmed down.

Last night Kate had a very traumatic experience involving a delusion that I had had a fight with her mother who died in 2005. The way she described it this was something that she had just overheard. She had been in bed for about an hour, so I suspected that she had had a dream. After reflecting on it, she probably had never gone to sleep. On several previous occasions, I have noticed that she has had similar experiences, but this one was definitely the most intense. She was angry with me. As I tried to calm her, she shifted her story. Then it sounded like the fighting was between her mother and father. A few minutes later, she settled into its being between our neighbors.

Several times she said she wasn’t going to talk about it anymore. Then she would continue. She kept talking about the “foul” language they were using and how sorry she felt for the children. She was so upset that she said she wanted to move out of the neighborhood. Trying to calm her, I played along as though I believed what she said and suggested that we might talk about moving in the morning. I knew that it would all be forgotten then. I also diverted her attention by talking about how fortunate we have been to have a marriage that has been free of the kind of fighting that she had observed. That seemed to work. She settled down, and we called it a night. The entire episode lasted about an hour and a half.

On the way to lunch today, I played some music. She cried during “Try to Remember.” This is a song she likes, but I don’t recall its leading to tears before. Then at lunch our server approached the table to give Kate a hug. As she did, she said, this is a day when I really need a hug. Then she proceeded to tell us that her neighbor’s dog had killed her cat this morning. That was all Kate needed to hear. She was in tears, and the server felt bad about having said anything.

It’s not just the tearful emotions that are elicited so easily. This morning as well as other times recently, Kate has responded to me with anger when I tried to help her with something that she wanted to do on her own. She is very much on edge now.

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Signs of a Cold or Alzheimer’s?

Kate’s cold and accompanying cough continued yesterday. I believe it was somewhat, but not dramatically, improved. It’s been an interesting cold in that her symptoms have been pretty even over the course of the past week. She hasn’t had a fever, and she goes long periods (an hour or two or more) without coughing. She doesn’t go quite as long without blowing her nose, but that also comes and goes.

Her overall behavior, however, suggests she has not been herself. She has been more confused and dependent. She has had greater difficulty working her jigsaw puzzles. She has actually had moments when she didn’t know what she should do with pieces once they were scattered across the screen of her iPad. I don’t mean she didn’t know the exact place to put them; she didn’t know what to do at all. She has also had several hallucinatory experiences. Two of those were a week ago, and one occurred last night.

We stopped at a traffic light on our way home from dinner, and she said, “Is there anything I can do to help you?” This came out of the blue for me. I didn’t know what she might have been thinking and said, “What made you ask that?” She said, “You’ve been going through so much.” I was still confused but decided not to question her. I simply assured her that I was getting along well. I told her that she had always been my support, that she should just continue that. She appeared relieved.

As usual, she worked on her iPad after we got home from dinner. She couldn’t remember how to start, that is, to open the puzzle app. This was not the first time. I showed her as I have done before. Once it was open, I showed her the various options she could choose. I walked away, and she immediately ran into a problem. She hit an arrow at the top left of the screen that took her to the store instead of selecting one of the puzzle options that filled the rest of the screen. That, too, was not the first time, but it is becoming more frequent. When she went back to the puzzles, she worked them for about an hour. Our son called as she was getting started. She said hello with her usual enthusiasm, but then quickly returned to her puzzles. While I was on the phone, she asked me for help several times. Her attention was clearly on the puzzles and not the phone call from Kevin.

When I got off the phone, she wanted to get ready for bed. First, she walked over to me and expressed her concern about me. She made reference to “that man.” I asked if she meant Kevin. She didn’t, but she was unable to tell me who “that man” is. I did grasp that she was again worried about me and the load I am carrying. One might think she was talking about my role as a caregiver, but it was not. I got the distinct impression that it had something to do with my work or volunteer activities. Interestingly, they are minimal these days; however, I am sure hallucinatory experiences often relate to distant memories.

She was tired and went to bed a little earlier than usual. She had done the same the night before. I think this could be related to her cold. After thirty minutes or so, she appeared to be asleep. I joined her thirty minutes later. When I did, I discovered that she was awake and whimpering. I asked her what was wrong. She didn’t (couldn’t?) explain but said, “The babies.” I told her I didn’t understand but wanted to help her. She went on to say, “I do want a baby, maybe two.” I mentioned our having had two babies who were now grown up. She was startled, not about having babies, but that she and I had babies. I told her I was her husband. She strongly denied it. I knew I needed to go in a different direction.

This was another time I felt explanations were irrelevant; she needed comfort. I told her just that and said, “I love you dearly, and I want to comfort you.” She said, “I know you do. I can tell by your voice that you’re not just saying that.” That began what may have been close to an hour of conversation during which she talked, and I gave supportive responses. I never fully understood what it was that prompted her worry. At one point, I asked her if she were afraid. She said she was. I was never able to discover why.

What I do know is that she thought she was young and unmarried. A couple of times she said, “I can have a child. I have one now.” One of those times she put both hands on her stomach as she said this. That may have meant she was carrying a child now. She also responded to me as if she knew I were her husband. I told her I loved her, and she said she loved me. Despite this, I don’t believe she ever recognized that I am her husband. I was just someone she felt very close to. She was very comfortable talking with me. Finally, she relaxed, and we both fell asleep.

It was a week ago yesterday afternoon that I noticed the first sign that she was getting sick. She coughed a few times, and it didn’t sound like a normal clearing of her throat. The next morning it was obvious she had a cold. It was that afternoon that she had an hallucination that involved our working in some kind of education project in another country. At the time I wondered if that could have been a side effect of the Robitussin DM or Zyrtec, the cold itself, or her Alzheimer’s.

One thing is clear. She has been noticeably different this week. I have eliminated the Robitussin and Zyrtec. I am left with the possibility of the cold itself or Alzheimer’s. At the moment, I believe Alzheimer’s is the primary cause and that the cold may have aggravated the situation. Time will tell.