1. < Caregivers: Dementia

Talking to self for hours

Posted by boston19 @boston19, Jun 13, 2018

I am caring for my mother in law ...she has dementia. For the past few days when she is in bed either at night or the afternoon...she has talked nonstop. She seems to be having a great time...laughing and telling all kinds of stories. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this with a dementia patient?

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Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Oct 15 7:53pm
In reply to @poppstun "yes i take care of my mother and she talks to someone all the time. its..." + (show)
@poppstun

yes i take care of my mother and she talks to someone all the time. its hard to hear what shes saying because she always talks like a whisper , but we have a house phone not hookd up and she will speak on that for a long time...laughing ...telling stories or something ...she sometimes will speak quite clearly , actually make sentaces which is wierd cuz normally its all word salad with her .

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@poppstun, what a creative solution with the disconnected house phone. It appears to keep her happy since she tells stories and laughs. As for her speaking clearly and making understandable sentences on occasion, would you consider this to be "lucid" moments?

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Teri | @tsc | Oct 16 4:19pm
In reply to @bayviewgal "Thankx @tsc for the link. He doesn't always recognize pictures unfortunately. I have flashcards with pictures,..." + (show)
@bayviewgal

Thankx @tsc for the link. He doesn't always recognize pictures unfortunately. I have flashcards with pictures, numbers, animals etc and he struggles. But then he surprises from time to time and will recognize a word that he sees and will say it out loud and it brings me much joy. He has primary progressive aphasia, so ALL of his communication skills are affected... from speaking to understanding what is being said and being able to read, even the basics. So I use alot of gestures and pointing to help him understand. I have several children's books that i keep laying around and he seems to enjoy them as much as he can. He'll open them and he'll interpret them they way he sees it and THAT brings me joy as well cuz he's trying and not just living in a world of silence.

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It sounds like you've thought of everything.
My husband won't look at picture books, but he enjoys working on jigsaw puzzles and he's advanced from the 16 piece puzzles to 100 piece. His progress brings me joy as well.
Take care.

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