Follow
Share

Mom started having hallucinations and showed signs of being paranoid a couple of weeks ago. Her blood pressure has always fluctuated and we watch it very closely, plus she is on bp pills. Last weekend she became very scared at night and saw people in her apartment. I went and got her and brought her to my house. She was good until something switched and she would not take her pills and from 2:00 in the afternoon until 7:00 in the morning she sat in my kitchen and berated my sister and myself, talked non stop the entire night, refused to take her pills, and we tried everything. Finally, we got so worried about her bp and she seemed to be getting worse that we called an ambulance which we did not want to do. She was admitted to the ER first and they gave her something to calm down, and lower her bp. They did a bunch of tests that at first she refused many times such as an EKG, CT scan, MRI, and things came back pretty normal for 91. They think the combo of macular degeneration and high bp is causing the hallucinations which leads to being paranoid. She got moved to the behavioral health wing and she is miserable. Her bp still fluctuates and the drs want it to be consistent, but she is not having hallucinations. We want to get her out of the hospital but the drs day it would be against medical advice and is not a good idea. We can only see Mom two hours a day and she argues and is mean to us for getting her in this situation. We want to take her home, but we are worried about her bp and her reverting back to the hallucinations and then not getting medical care because we went against medical advice. We are going on day 6 of this and she just seems more agitated and my sister and I want her home. We can get her home health care to manage her bp, but the drs want to keep her. What should we do. We feel helpless and terrible for our mom.

Find Care & Housing
Patients always stay on the Geri Psych floor longer than others. They will evaluate your Mother and start her on medication, but then a lot of medications have to be fine tuned to just the right dose and that takes time.

Please do not take your Mother home early, you’ll be right back where you started. Independent Living may refuse to take her back. And you’ll be back to square one, then what? Start over?? What a waste of time and money that would be.
Helpful Answer (8)
Reply to BeckyT
Report

I am so sorry that your mom is struggling with high blood pressure and hallucinations.

Was your mother checked for a UTI? Urinary tract infections can cause unusual behavior in older people.

Has she always blamed you for her problems? You didn’t cause any of her issues. You did the right thing by making the decision that she needed to be in the ER.

Do you suspect that she may have dementia?

My godmother had macular degeneration and sadly went blind. She also had Alzheimer’s disease. Macular degeneration has been linked to developing dementia.

I would follow the hospital’s recommendation of keeping her in the hospital. You may want to start thinking about placement for your mom in a facility.

Have you spoken with the social worker at the hospital about what might be best for her regarding her future needs?

Best wishes to you and your family.
Helpful Answer (7)
Reply to NeedHelpWithMom
Report

I think you and your sister have to get together, and think long and hard about the future, before you bring her home.

Do you want to be a full time caregiver, do you know what this entails, the years of your life it could take from you. The stress, the mental stress, which almost always leads to some physical issues for you.

We have people posting often that they brought their love one home and there are so burnout . It effects every part of your life. And now you may have dementia to add to it.

Also if you read some of others you will learn that once you bring them home you are stuck with them and unable to get them in a facility.

I'm so sorry about your mom, I understand how difficult this is, I'm going through my mom's health failing too. It's so extremely hard.

Best of luck to you
Helpful Answer (7)
Reply to Anxietynacy
Report

Why on earth would you want mom back home, undiagnosed, in the same condition she was in when you called an ambulance for help???? Geriatric psychiatrists must stabilize her first, and then you can decide what comes next. To take her home AMA is sheer lunacy at this point! Unless you want to be up all night again with her berating you and talking non stop. Mom needs to be evaluated for dementia and mental illness and you gals need to figure out where she's going to live once she's released from the hospital because living alone at 91 will no longer be feasible. Maybe in home caregivers can be an option?

Wishing you the best of luck with a difficult situation.
Helpful Answer (7)
Reply to lealonnie1
Report

"Yes, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can cause visual hallucinations called Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) in up to half of people who experience it. CBS occurs when the brain adjusts to significant vision loss, and the hallucinations can appear real and come and go without warning. They can last for seconds or days, and CBS itself can last for years."

Do not take Mom outbof the hospital.
Helpful Answer (7)
Reply to JoAnn29
Report

It sounds more like your mom may be in the throes of dementia, as that can cause hallucinations, especially Lewy Body dementia.
Either that or a bad UTI, but I'm guessing that the ER tested her for that as that is pretty standard.
If it is dementia, your mom will only continue to get worse and it may be best that you just let the hospital place your mom in the appropriate facility where she will receive the 24/7 care she now requires and you and your sister can just be her loving children and advocates, and not her caregivers.
Helpful Answer (6)
Reply to funkygrandma59
Report

Has anyone tested her for a Urinary Tract Infection? These often cause psychiatric symptoms in the elderly.
Helpful Answer (6)
Reply to BarbBrooklyn
Report

It sounds to me as though they saw a 90+ year old and wrote everything off as age related, someone who has lived with vision loss for several years doesn't suddenly experience hallucinations because of it and I can't say I've ever heard of high BP causing them either.
My mom also had a very sudden decline at that age and I never did get a diagnosis (in fact my search for answers is what lead me to AgingCare). My mom did recover for a period of time but it was the beginning of a long, slow decline into what I believe was vascular dementia (which I diagnosed because of her medical history plus evidence of multiple problem areas in her MRI).
Ask to sit with the neurologist to go over exactly what they see on that MRI and the reason they are reluctant to release her - what are they looking for? when will they be satisfied she is stable enough to go home?
Beyond that it's time to make some long term plans because even if she recovers from this crisis there will likely be others in the future. Can she remain at home and who will provide care if she does? If not what/where next?
Helpful Answer (6)
Reply to cwillie
Report

You are LUCKY your mom is in hospital care, so please don't interfere with this.
I would have bet on a UTI here given the sudden onset of this, but I would have been wrong it looks like, as the Urinalysis apparently didn't show that.

You are almost certainly looking at dementia here, or mental illness. They are now finding that bipolar disease is, believe it or not, being diagnosed over age 60 in some 25% of bipolar patients. This could be also Lewy's Body Dementia, which can give very real hallucinations.

The only thing now you can do is stay in close contact with the medical team in the psyc eval unit; there is going to have to be scanning and testing and you need a diagnosis, and whatever medication treatments might help.

I am so sorry. I have no answer for you at this time and sounds like the medical team does not either at this point. I sure do hope you update us as this moves along, but you may be looking at placement for your mother in a memory care. Your profile tells us she has been thriving in independent living so far, but unless this "miraculously " goes away, she won't be able to return to IL.

I will be very surprised if all this is due to increasing macular degeneration and/or BP. I suspect the BP is up due to the agitation. But time will tell. Stay in close contact; ask for social worker or care case manager. You need information and testing now.
Helpful Answer (6)
Reply to AlvaDeer
Report

I guess I would ask Why do you want to take her home? She is where she needs to be, it is no longer about what your mother wants it is about what she needs.

Sounds like dementia not BP, if so she is at the stage that she will need 24/7 care, are you ready to handle this? Memory Care may be the answer.

As a side note, my mother is 99 and has both as does your mother, she does not have hallucinations, she is in AL and is very happy there, new friends, activities and more.

You and your sister need to have a sit down and really discuss this at length. Dementia is a disease that has no cure and will continue to get worse.

Sorry about all of this.
Helpful Answer (5)
Reply to MeDolly
Report

See All Answers
Ask a Question
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter