I put Mom in a nursing home five days ago. She'd had some occasional mild confusion at home, but often was coherent and oriented. On the day she was admitted she was lucid and coherent. The next morning when I went to see her she was totally disoriented and was hallucinating. She has not slept at night except for a few hours in the wee hours of the morning. The staff tells me it's not unusual for someone to be very confused for the first couple of weeks, that it takes that long to get acclimated. They were going to contact the dr today to go over her meds and see if he wanted to make any changes or order a sleeping pill. Does anyone have experience with this? Is this confusion and hallucinating a normal reaction to nh placement? Help!
Rather than explain it, anyone interested can fiind plenty of material on the subject - through google or medical sites....don't rely on the popular 'webmd' type sites..not much there.
I saw a difference in my mom's behavior which was stable when the construction on our street started using toxic compounds to resurface their driveway. They are fragile, and one day we might be too. Nursing homes are no panacea - if you are stressed and can't handle caring for them at home thats perfectly ok. Nursing homes are by nature imperfect and impersonal despite what the brochures say - so a vibrant sociable elder may like assisted living or having sing a longs, but I wonder if lying in a convalescant home with 24 tvs blaring up & down the halls and no visitors is not a future I want for myself, or my mom. Bless everyone who tries their hardest no matter where their loved ones are.
That is what I am afraid of. That is why I will keep my husband as long as I can.
My sister was in one. The nurse had a bad hand. She made my sister sit in the wheel chair because it was easy for the nurse to change the dressing on her arm. My sister just got back from a treatment and was VERY tired.
They did the same thing to my husband with blood pressure meds. I found out they gave it to him. The MG may have been lower but they still did it.
Our family is not safe in a nh, I don't care what others say.
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