My 87yr old Mother has vascular dementia, she is bedridden at this point and on Hospice. She has a lot of strange, scary, heart breaking behaviors, typical of people with dementia. I've been looking at this message board for quite a while now, and finally signed up. I've gotten a lot of answers to my questions just by reading. My Mother has a problem that I haven't seen mentioned though. She's been in and out of hospitals, nursing homes, and now Hospice is here. No one has an answer. She thinks she is standing up even though she is laying in bed. Over and over she ask, please let me lay down, I'm so tired of standing, just get me to bed. Sometimes her feet are even moving like she's walking. I can see she's exhausted and there is nothing I can do to comfort her. I'll adjust the hospital bed so she's sitting, then put her down and say, see, now you are laying down. Sometimes it works, often it doesn't. So many other things I feel I need to talk about but, I'll just start out with the standing up laying down question. Has anyone else experienced this with the one you are caring for? One thing I've learned so far is, with dementia sometimes there are no answers, and every person is different. My Mother seems to be pretty extreme even by dementia standards.
I wonder if when your Mom insists she's standing, if you go along with it at first. Agree with her. Then ask her to lie down and go through the motions of it.
Much love to you and your Mom.
What your Mom is going through is normal. In fact, I read where 90% of elders will experience delirium when they are in a hospital type setting, and 30% of much younger people will experience this after having major surgery. There are meds that can help calm the person, ask Hospice for their suggestions.