Grandfather's Ill Health Update

[kvalidir]

Hi further to my question just before Christmas regarding my very poorly Grand Da, he was rushed to hospital on New Years Eve very poorly and diagnosed with a UTI which our GP had missed. He's on long range antibiotics etc and I've just got him him today. He is however terribly confused and fanciful which I know can be a UTI side effect (the nurses stabbed three patients to death on the ward last night, there are actors dressed as cats all over the ward to catch the rats, one of the nurses isn't a nurse he's a Timelord and alters all the clocks and watches to say whatever time he fancies, the Illuminati run the Hospital etc etc etc).
Is it best to nod and smile and agree with this or better to do what I've been doing and explain he has a UTI which is making him hallucinate, as he's just got quite stroppy with me ( not his usual style) and said I must be part of the plot?
Physically in himself he's much better and brighter, just this 'interesting' personality change which I'm hoping might resolve accordning to Google.

Thanks x

[Sqad]

Update appreciated.

[woofgang]

Change the subject if you can. Listen to him and make him feel validated. If he is worried about the hallucinations then you need to mention it to the doc but if he is just finding it all interesting then don't try and persuade him that its an effect of his illness. As you have learned, all that will do is make him angry and distressed.

[woofgang]

validation. I am not suggesting that your grandfather won't improve but the approach is the same.
https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/2-18-16-validation-therapy-for-dementia/

[kvalidir]

Thank you Woof that's very helpful, exactly what I've been looking for x

[woofgang]

I hope he recovers soon.

[Cloverjo]

When my mum was ill with a UTI and cancer in her brain she told me Carol Vorderman gave her her lunch that day, among other things. Best to just smile and nod, I think.

Glad your granda is a bit better.

[wolf63]

If that is what he is hallucinating about he must lead an interesting life or watch interesting TV programmes.

I hope that he feels better soon - seeing someone that you love suffering in such a way must be heartbreaking.

[kvalidir]

and me, very happy he's still with us tbh because he was so poorly before Christmas I honestly thought he might not be. Thanks Woof x

[Mamyalynne]

Good link from Woof and well done to you and all family caring for him, hope the UTI subsides soon Kval.

[kvalidir]

Thanks Clover, he loves Carol Vorderman too, so I could see that happening x

[Baldric]

Nothing useful to add, just wishing you both all the best.

[Tilly2]

Kval, my dad had frequent UTI's and it was scary to see and hear him in a delusional state but he got better, eventually, once the antibiotics kicked in.

[Patsy33]

I think it best to go along with him sympathetically and briefly as you can, then change the subject. Let's hope in next few days the hallucinations lesson. It must be quite distressing to see your Grandfather like this. Best wishes.xx

[kvalidir]

Thanks to you all, just glad he's home now.
He's pretty well read Wolf and I can see elements of fiction, mentioning Timelords etc and his real life (we've just had the army kicking people's doors in for internment- he's from Belfast) but it must be terrifying for him.
I think I might try to stimulate him with some happy films and books and take him out a lot this week since he seems physically much perkier, see if at least we can turn the hallucinations to something less unpleasant.
Thanks all for your good wishes x

[Peter Pedant]

You have not differentiated whether this is confusion, psychosis or dementia

dementia he wont remember because - - they dont remember
confusion - he probably wont recollect or else have a very hazy memory

and psychosis - I had a post op psychosis and made everyone blush when I related their answers to my psychotic delusions a few days later .....
and blush they did
you dont have a memory deficit with psychosis - a learning point I think the staff took to heart

he is VERY likely to be confused - worse at night
and should go back to what he was like before his admission as he gets better. Recovery gets longer as you get older
Old people are quite able to understand that when they become ill they get confused. This MAY occur in children but is interpreted as very vivid dreams that they remember.

[kvalidir]

He seems fixated on somethings Pete from around the time of admission (31st December) but can't seem to remember others or changes things slightly to make more sense to himself. For example the actors dressed as cats started off a few days ago as 'Why are all these cats here?', then he logiced himself that cats were unlikely to be allowed on a ward and came up with they are now actors dressed as cats to scare the rats away ( which he hasn't seen). He's normally a very unfanciful person and I can see him trying to logically make sense about what he's seeing and thinking. I'm just glad he's so much better. I've also just read his discharge sheet which also states left-sided community acquired pneumonia with increased shadowing at the left base and an in patient fall ( which no-one mentioned to me), so no wonder he felt bloody awful :(

[tonyav]

I remember my late aunt having a few UTI infections, she had hallucinations but she seemed to realise that that's what they were hallucinations even the family of little people that lived next door ( next door was her front room ) and used to traipse through her house and help their-selves to anything they felt like out of her kitchen. Although she did have Charles Bonnet syndrome has well, so due to that she had hallucinations anyway.

[kvalidir]

It's quite heartening to see how many other people on here have witnessed infection based delusions, I've got virtually no experience of anything like this and it is as you say extremely alarming and distressing. Hope it starts to calm down for him. My Dad is coming over so that might cheer him up as well x

[rockyracoon]

Sorry to hear about your Pops, Kval. My Nan used to hallucinate in an similar way. She thought there was a Jack in the Box in her wardrobe that came out in the night looking to stab her. Strangely, she didn’t seem scared, she used to refer to it as the ‘little effer in the wardrobe’

[kvalidir]

Lol crikey Rocky, your poor Nan. Same really here, considering he's telling me he saw three people murdered and the ward was swimming with blood, he's not as freaked out as you'd suppose him to be either :/