CBD and fits

[17052011]

Mum had a fit last night, first one ever. She's in a home now so lucky for us she was not on her own when it happened. The home called me and I went to hospital last night with her at 830pm and was seen by a doctor at 1.00am this morning! Mum was put on a trolley in a&e, had a scan took some bloods and discharged her at 830am this morning. She seemed ok today and was back to herself. Will she have more fits or do you think this may have been a one off? X

[abirke]

pzagy is one who has successfully been through this with her mother in law. She would be the one to speak to ...or just read her last few posts.....

Good luck, I am sorry for the both of you...does she have PSP?

AVB

[Rowan8831]

My husband has cbd and he had a fit at lunchtime yesterday and was taken to A and E. He had bloodtests and a CT Scan and was released home last night. They said there was nothing wrong that they could find and probably just part of the disease. He is fine now - eating breakfast!

[17052011 in reply to Rowan8831]

Hi glad he's ok. It's strange isn't it will just have to put it down to the CBD. I'm just glad mum is now being cared for full time I would have panicked and not known what to do. X

[pzagy in reply to Rowan8831]

One day good one day bad...one minute good one minute bad....I now the feeling. I am not understanding bringing them to the hospital for having a fit????

In our case I found the one thing that calms her down is prayer, so we pray and pray and pray. May be time to ckeck meds for anxiety as this is the biggest problem we have and if they dont find the right med to help with it it will drive your husband and you to drink

[Rowan8831]

I am glad your mum is ok and the care home is the best place for her to be when such things happen. I am always really relieved when my husband is in respite care. This horrible disease is very difficult to deal with. You never know what is coming next!

[pzagy]

I know this stage well, my mother i n law has fits hourly. I notice this happens when she cannot get her words out or she isn't tended to the second she calls. She has been in a home now for a week and for a while I thought she was better but we have gone back to the same routine as before.

I talk firmly to her and as her why she is so scared, she is afraid of being alone. I brought her rosary to the home and when she gets really agitated we sit and pray. This works for a while. I find that in our case, she does not want to be alone, she was at home with 24 hour care and watching TV all day long. If the carer or one of us was out of eyesight she started screaming. She is n ow starting to understand that it's ok to be alone for a few minutes.

Do the fits happen when she is alone? At night? Before meds? Have the doctor check her meds as with time the effectiveness of them diminishes and they become tollerant.

I walked into her home last night and from the elevator I heard her having a fit in the rec room. The nurse on duty was sitting at her station doing nothing. See here we have 1 nurse per floor and about 4 PSW's that help the patients, the nurse is there for meds. So I looked at this new girl and asked why she wouldn't move her or at least see if she needed anything. All she wanted was to go to the bathroom...I made the nurse bring her, she thought it was beneath her but I really didn't care..

I realized lst night that my mother in law is starting the first stage of dimentia I think. She told me I was 57 when she knows full well that I am 48 just like her son. She has this open eyed feared look on her face at all times and cannot do one thing for loner than 2 minutes without scremaing out. She has moments that are relaxed and others that make me worry about her mental state.

Also, you can have the home check for a UTI, sometimes those can make people 'go nuts' so to speak.

Message me whenever you want, unfortunalty I have become kind of a pro at this part of CBD.

Paola

[17052011 in reply to pzagy]

Hi and thank you. Mum was eating her dinner when she had the fit so she was lucky as she was surrounded by Carer's. She is In home now and does like it there, it's the second one she's been on and prefers this one much better. Just before the fit she said she wanted to go the toilet so maybe she was anxious cos she needws to go? She was not unwell priori to this. The day after she was very tired and her speech has been even more slurred than normal. It's so hard to speak with her on the phone. Mum still has a good appetite but doesn't sleep very well and always looks tired and naps a lot during the day.

[pzagy in reply to 17052011]

Carbon copy in my case, when she has to go, she has to go. Do you find she is much more anxious when she has a bowel movement??? Almost scared to go???

My mother in law didn't sleep more that 2 hours a day for over 4 months. We tweaked her medication and now she sleeps a full night and only gets up 1-2 times for a bathroom break. We chose to increase her night meds to get her to sleep. We find that a good nights sleep makes for a more pleasant day.

This time of year does not help with the shorter days. It seems the witching hour is 6pm. She wants to go to bed and be done with it, but she also wants her meds which come at about 8pm...

Have the naps been happening for a while? Have you changed her meds? So many questions with really no answers. I think we are in the same boat, at the same time...

wish for the best always

Paola

[17052011 in reply to pzagy]

Hi when I visit sometimes her first words are "take me the toilet " and as you say it had to be right there and then it she gets annoyed. She did mention that just before the fit she needed the toilet so I wonder if she was anxious and that's what triggered the fit? Mum goes to bed at 630pm every night. Again the same she gets ratty if she does not go then. But the home have been great and they always shed her ready for bed st that time. Mum gets up at least twice in the night for the toilet. It does sound like they are at similar stages. How long has your mum in law been diagnosed? X

[pzagy in reply to 17052011]

Sorry for the late response, somehow I missed this one. My MIL was diagnosed this last June but we think this all started in 2010 just after my father in law died. Her initial symptom was her speech she alwasy thought there was something in her throught so they operated on her thyroid but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Then came the falls and the anxiety, a serious fall in July of 2015 landed her in hospital requiring ankle surgery and it has been downhill from there.

I think the constant need to go to the bathroom is from them not wanting to 'go' in their diaper. My MIL always says that she will never be reduced to going in a diaper. So to compensate she asks to be brought to the bathroom every hour on the hour 90% of the time she does nothing. We fixed that by making a schedule for bathroom breaks, its almost like potty training a child, she is OK with that and never has accidents. But you are right, she gets very agitated when she has to really go and no one can understand her. It takes a lot of energy to yell and go on like that so it is no wonder that you mom is tired afterwards.

Today my mother in law cannot walk at all, her left side is compromised but with physio she is able to let her arms rest at her side in bed. Her speech is very compromised, her anxiety is relentless but because she is sleeping the night (finally) and is taking something to clam her down it is not as noticable. Her apitite is great and has no problems eating BUT everything she drinks has a thickner added to it.

I wish my mother in law would just lay in bed after her night routine and watch TV, she wants someone there beside her until she is ready to close her eyes. Something we have to change as we cannot continue having someone there every day 8am to 9pm.

Your right they probably are at the same stage....

[Spiralsparkle in reply to pzagy]

Could I ask what night meds she takes as Mum hardly sleeps at night now and it is so tiring!

[pzagy in reply to Spiralsparkle]

She is taking 120mg trazadone nightly with 30mg Mirtazapine for her anxiety and depression. Since the doctor at the home changed her meds she has slept peacefully and does not get up at night.

She also doesnt request to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes. For some reason, she now can wait up to 4 hours between trips during the day, I think it's because she finally got into a routine.

I wish I had the answers, all I have is the experience watching this once strong woman become a shell of her former self

Hugs

Paola

[Ettavb in reply to pzagy]

Interesting, my mom always wants to go to bed at 6PM as well.

[Ettavb]

Allowing for the differences in idioms from different countries -- I'm not 100% sure what "fits" mean? In my area (US), I use the word "melt downs" - which I think means the same thing ("fits" in my area can mean a seizure -- so I'm want to be sure I've got the right understanding).

My mother does have melt downs and extreme anxiety. These episodes are so trying on everyone. I worry that it's a little bit like the boy who cried wolf, and if she has a serious problem, nobody will respond to her. Most of her meltdowns occur from the anxiety about not being able to do something that she perceives to be life threatening. For example, she believes her vitamin supplementation is keeping the disease at bay... and she has half a beer in during the weekly happy hour provided at her facility -- and not for socialization, but because of the B vitamins she believes to be of benefit. A number of meltdowns have ensued when something gets in the way of attending happy hour - which comes from her belief that the vitamins from the beer are essential to her brain health. (Not saying that's rational, it's just how she thinks about it.)