What's it like, living with Alzheimer's?

Well today is Saturday and we are having some nice weather, so here I am "Inside" writing in the blog!  If it was cold and raining outside, I would want to be outside cutting grass.  Is that what Alzheimer's like?  Your body is doing one thing, while your brain is trying to do something else?  Or wanting to do one thing, while your actually doing another?  I think it is both Yes, and No!  No, it is not quite like that, but Yes, it is almost as simple as that.  OK Brian, you got me confused!  Speak English, or Earthling, or something else we can understand.

Living with someone that has Dementia/Alzheimer's is very much like living with a normal person for the better part of the day.  In the respect that there is normal behavior, and normal conversation for a good portion of the day.  Then there is some off the wall, abnormal, unbelievable, confusing behavior.  Which is what I mean by wanting to physically do something, while mentaly doing something else. 

• Bill will put a blanket down on the couch or bed, lie down on top of it, then try to cover up with it while its trapped underneath him.
• I will tell Bill to take off his shirt so I can shave him,  I turn around, and he will be completely naked.
• I will tell Bill that we will drive into town "Tomorrow" and do something, he will go climb into the truck right then.
• He "Dips Snuff"  he will attempt to take the lid off the can, but have it upside down.  I will say Bill turn it over.  He will spin it round and round in his hand.  I will have to explain very carefully.  "Bill, stop!  now flip the can upside down"  He will then flip it to where the lid is on top.
• We will walk somewhere, and I will lead him by the arm telling him to turn left,  he will turn to the right, and no matter how hard I pull him to the left, and keep saying "this way Bill, this way."  He will keep trying his hardest to pull and turn the opposite way. 
• I put a plate of food down in front of him, he will look at my plate clear across the table, reach across the table and grab my plate.  "I say no, your plate is in front of you!"  He will look down at his plate say "Oh", then look back up at me, look across the table, lean across the table and grab my plate again.
• On a daily basis he will do one of the following, he will get up to go pee, open the front door, and pee on the porch.  Get up to go spit outside, and spit in the hallway leading to the bedrooms.  He will get up to go out on the front porch and end up in his bedroom wondering where the front door is.  I have caught him several times trying to climb out of his bedroom window while trying to get to the front porch on the other side of the house.

The above mentioned behavior I expect to happen on any given day, at any given time.  This behavior although cause for some concern is less dangerous than the following situations.  The occurences that arrive unexpectedly are those of his Hallucinations, and delusional behavior.  That behavior, atleast with Bill is where he is partially in my reality, where he knows who I am and where we are, and partially in another reality where he believes other people are in the room with us, or he is doing something that we are not really doing.   We may be having a conversation and he will think someone else is in the room with us, and start talking to them or about them.  He will bring up something that is going on only in his mind, yet I have no clue what he is refering to. 

Well this confuses me, my first reaction is to say no, or to state that no one is here, or no that did not happen.  That may or may not start an argument, or frighten Bill.  So I pretend that his reality is real to me as well, and attempt to steer him away from the Hallucinations, or delusions by changing the subject, or distracting his attention.   One day he started having a discussion with one of his sons that in my reality was not in our house.  His son was ignoring him and would not answer him,  Bill started getting madder and madder.  He finally got up looked at me, and said come on, we're leaving, If the S.O.B. will not talk to me, then there is no use staying here.  Bill then leaves the house and climbs into my truck.  Now the problem is, we are at my house and his son was 30 miles away in his own home.  So, I get into the truck, drive Bill down to the local gas station, Quick-It # 8 buy him a candy bar and drink, and go right back home to our house.  By the time we made it home, he was back to my reality and had forgotten all about his son ignoring him.  We drove two and a half miles down the road, two and a half back,
10 minutes had passed.   It does not take much to distract, and ease the tension, all you need to do is change the environment long enough for them to calm down, and step back into your reality.

A hallucination is a false perception of objects or events involving the senses. When individuals with Alzheimer’s disease have a hallucination, they see, hear, smell, taste or feel something that isn’t there.

Delusional disorder, previously called paranoid disorder, is a type of serious mental illness called a "psychosis" in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined. The main feature of this disorder is the presence of delusions, which are unshakable beliefs in something untrue. People with delusional disorder experience non-bizarre delusions, which involve situations that could occur in real life, such as being followed, poisoned, deceived, conspired against, or loved from a distance. These delusions usually involve the misinterpretation of perceptions or experiences. In reality, however, the situations are either not true at all or highly exaggerated.

When people suffering from Alzheimer's suffer Hallucinations, or Delusions they may think that you are a stranger trying to cause them harm, when in fact you are a loved one, trying to help them.  This is what often causes Alzheimer sufferers to get violent and lash out.  Hallucinations and delusions, are often what causes Alzheimer sufferers to wonder off.  They think they are somewhere other than where they really are, or they think they are going towards a destination that only exist in their reality.    The situations that stem from hallucinations and delusions are very dangerous not only to the Alzheimer victim, but to the Caregiver as well.