Last night we were sitting and watching TV, my daughter,husband and I....when my husband all of a sudden started fingering the coffee table, flowers, etc. Then we noticed he was touching the floor and under the glass on the coffee table. Then he started feeling the carpet and then put his hand to his face and licked his palm and all five finegers on that hand. This went on for an hour or so before I got him to take his aricept and go to bed. Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior?

Also, we were visiting my Mom at the assisted living and he started to laugh. I asked him what was so funny and he pointed to the tassles on his shoes and said they were dancing. This happened earlier in the day. He has not done this sort of thing in the past and it really has me scared of what is going on. His odd behavior usually happens at night.

This morning he seemed o.k. as o.k. as he can be. Non of the weird things that he was doing last night. Need some input from you well informed people.

Thanks,
Jan

Dear Jan,

After being Mom's basic caregiver for many years, I concluded that any behavior that did not hurt herself or anyone else was OK.

Mom does weird things like that all the time. It just reminds me of a small child. I can see a baby laughing at the tassles on a shoe swinging back and forth. And maybe he was 'tasting' the glass table and the rug, like small kids do .. it may have looked like chocolate to him, or some kind of drink.

There is no way to understand their behavior; the goal in AD care is to keep them warm, fed, properly medicated (mainly for other conditions, I personally have no faith in the so called Alzheimer drugs) and clean, dry, not playing with fire, not shooting guns or driving cars into trees or groups of people, etc. Those things you describe are very distressing - since you want your old husband back, the rational one, the one who was clear in his head. But sadly he is gone and an 'imposter' is in his place ... and you have to shrug it off and say 'oh well, it didn't do any harm.'

How I hate this disease! It steals people we love from us even while they are still alive. I grieve for my Mom although she is still living ...

Sorry if I sound terribly negative tonight..

Love and prayers,

Martha

Hi Jan,

My dad has alzheimers and parkinsons. He has started having hallucinations that we know about, for about 2 mo. He sees bugs. But only in his house and mainly in the rooms with carpet or rugs. He even tries to show them to the close family members, just to show that he is not imagining them.

The scratches them on the floor, with what ever he can find. His family dr. even told him they were hallucinations 2 - 3 times. And even explained what that means. And I think my dad knows what he was talking about. But, he said he still sees them, anyway. He wants some kind of operation, some kind of pill or to have a pill taken away to make the bugs go away (he says they even some times bite him and itch).

My husband just exterminated their house about 2 mo. ago and he thinks he needs to pay thousands of $ to get more and better exterminaters to come back and do it better!!!

I think that a lot, a very many ad people have hallucinations and some can work with them and some can not. My dad cannot.

I tried to play along with my dad and pretend that I saw the bugs too, but just could not. Good Luck to you and hopefully yall can get past this part of ad without too much trouble.

Love, Wannabe

I've had similar experiences with my grandfather. It's unnerving, because, at times, I don't know how to react. Early on, as his dementia progressed, I still thought I could reason with him, and, then, I quickly learned, as some of the above posts mentioned, it's alot like dealing with a child. As long as his hallucinations aren't harming him or others, I/we "play" along with them. In my case, unfortunately, his hallucinations often coincide with agitation, concerning the caregivers that sit with him. I monitor our "at home nursing home" daily and just strive to keep him safe...

I have seen hallucinations in older people either with or without dementia. In my experience, it is most often due to a urinary tract infection. That's not to say it may not be part of their disease - but that a UTI is usually the firat thing that needs to be ruled out if this happens.

regards Georgie

Hi Georgie,

That is a very interesting idea. I had not thought that hallucinations could be caused by a UTI. My father has had problems with his incontinence and growing prostate.

I think that I will ask his family dr. to do a test on his cup of urine, the next time we go. But, my dad is pretty "with it", and I think he would tell us is it hurt to go pee.

Thanks for the info.

Love, Wannabe