My mom fell out of bed last night at the Assisted Living Facility. She hit her head and had a laceration in her eyebrow and quite a shiner. She has avoided walking, fearful of falling, for several weeks so we can't figure out how she fell. It got me thinking about the Alzheimer's mind...I wonder if when people with Alzheimer's dream they dream in the present Alz. state or in the past. If they dream in the past, when their minds and bodies are whole, it could account for the nighttime behaviors that so many exhibit. I'm not sure if it's possible to determine because by the time the person is awake enough to talk they are back in the depths of the disease.

Last night I sat with my mother for 6 hours, holding her hand, trying to keep her head stll until the got her into the CT scan and trying to explain where she was. She got two stitches above her eye with no anethesia, mostly because the doctor was afraid that giving her the shot to numb it would take away his opportunity to get her while she was calm. I held her head still and it broke my heart to hear her cry out in pain.

But she's a trooper. No broken bones, apparently nothing more than the eye injury - the bruising and swelling will take a while to go away and the stitches will dissolve. I just wonder how aware she was of her situation. Was she afraid? Did she hurt more than she could verbalize? I don't know. And even though this morning I feel like I got hit by a Mack truck I'm glad I was home and able to go to her so she didn't have to go through that with only strangers around.

It makes me feel sad for the elderly people who have no close family and depend on strangers to navigate through the Medicare maze, medical care and day to day living. Family is so important. I'm thankful for mine.

Oh your poor mom. I can't imagine getting stitches without numbing the area first.
Is there anyway they can lower mom's bed so it is close to the floor?

I'm so sorry to hear of your Mom's fall and resulting injury.

With your question about how our LO's dream, my FIL couldn't tell the difference between a dream and reality. and would argue that he was just finishing working on the car and had driven to lunch and back. But couldn't explain how he managed to fall from his bed or recliner.

And in his case, trying to tell the doctors what was going on was very difficult... as FIL could put on a pretty good show of being with it with strangers.

Joanie,
What a terrible thing to have happened, and even worse to have stitches without getting numbed. No way I could have stood that. It had to be one of the worst experiences of your life to have to hold her down and hear her in that much pain.

As far as the dreams, I really do think that Alz. patients dream in both. Many times when mom is sitting in her recliner she talks in her sleep. I believe at that point she is of course dreaming. I've listened to her, and there's times where she talks about something current, and then there's times were she seems to be talking to her Mother or Father, or things that have happened long ago.

At times she actually wakes up, and says that she was dreaming about such and such a thing, or thinks that what she was dreaming was real. One time she said to me, I was just talking to Ma, where did she go?

Guess we'll never really know huh?

How's your mom doing since the stitches? I imagine if she mentions it to you, then of course she remembers the pain. My mom doesn't seem to remember recent pain. But mention a brain MRI to her that she had years ago, and she'll tell you how horrible it was with that mask on her face, and how she felt like she was in a coffin.

She's had a few painful things done in the two years she's been here, and I have to say, remembers none of them.

But the funniest thing is the other day we took her out to lunch. We haven't in a very long time as she would always pass out in the restaurant after eating with one time us calling the medics. So I haven't want to take a chance. But the other day I told my husband we had to get her out a bit.

Well, wouldn't you know, right after she ate, she had one of those episodes. She didn't fully pass out, as I kinda know now how to get her through it, but she did mention that she did not ever want to eat out again, as that always happens to her when she does!! Of course by the time we got home, and I made her lay down and told her why, she said to me, "why do you make up things like that"!

Go figure huh!

Jackie

Oh, Joanie, seeing them hurt, especially around the head, is so scary. I remember rushing home to Mom, after she hsd taken a bad fall, actually she had passed-out, and hit her head REALLY hard going down, on the kitchen counter. We never did find out...why? When I got there, it was dusk, and I had all my luggage, and my Mom was sanding at the top of the stairs, with a short terry-cloth robe, and big sun-glasses on. (at night! ) I said "Please God, don't let me cry, it will just scare her." She has two HUGE black eyes, and then of course they changed to yellow & green, and kind of creeped down her face. Anyway, I guess worse things can happen, but it is heart-breaking to see them actually hurt, or hurting.

It sounds like there is no lasting damage, so that is good. Oh, I wish we could just put them in a big bubble of protection, ya know?

N.Mc.