While visiting my father in law in the nursing home, he was distressed and confused. He has been diagnosed with dementia and we have seen signs of it in the past. Things like not remembering the date. Not remembering meals. Not remembering holidays, etc. This time -- He was searching for a diamond ring that he claims he had purchased for his ex-wife. He went on to describe the ring and explain he wasn't sure why he bought it, since he didn't know if she would accept it or not from him. We were unable to determine if this was something that really happened in the care center, if he was remembering something from his past, or something he had hallucinated. It doesn't really matter which it was, I guess, we were just disturbed by his complete confusion. Further investigation with his ex-wife revealed that there was NEVER a large diamond ring, so we are even more confused now. Has anyone experienced this before? We are looking for advice for future happenings. We just helped him look for the ring while he was searching to help calm him down. The care center just says dementia and leaves it at that, but, this is the first time we have had such confusion before. Anyone have this happen before and have any advice for our family? Thank you.
And she will get in a loop such that these stories or avid descriptions will occur over and over maybe for a few months...then maybe she doesn't have these fantasies for several months.
I used to be alarmed and worried she was getting worse, etc. But I've learned it is just part of the dementia. I have learned to go along with it, ask her to give me more details, offered to help find something or report to authorities (even faking a phone call in front of her) so this seems to validate her thought and appease her. Then I just play along when she asks and say "oh, they called and no leads, but they know you and are working on it). Meds didn't seem to help because she didn't like them and refused to continue on some of the anti anxiety ones.
She eventually can be redirected.