My husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2012. His symptoms are now very bad and we think he is in the final stages of this horrid disease. He is in hospital at the moment with heart block waiting for a pacemaker to be fitted. Within 24 hours of bending admitted he started having hallucinations , being incoherent. All the signs of dementia with Lewis bodies. I am at a loss to understand how this developed so quickly. He seemed a lot more coherent today after 3 days and was aware he had been hallucinating. Has anyone had a similar experience and if so could this be a one off or is it a sign that dementia has arrived? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Hello Happyskier
My immediate reaction was what do the hospital say? Has he had a UTI (water infection) that can present as severe dementia/confusion which disappears when the UTI is treated/clears up. Also has he had the right meds at the right time. It is not unknown for hospitals to get this wrong with quite catastrophic results as I know from my own experience; they got my meds and timing wrong and what should have just been a two or three night admission turned into two weeks and three weeks in rehab. I am not saying this explains what he has experienced in hospital but it may be worth finding out a bit more. There could be more to it than meets the eye.
Tot
Hello
I agree totally with Tot that a Urinary Tract infection can cause all of the symptoms you stayed. Opioid based pain medications are known to interact badly with Parkinson’s medications causing Hallucinations, these affected my husband so badly when he was admitted with Sepsis and underwent orthopeadic operations he now refuses to have them and has no opioids to be given on his notes. Hope you continue to see re stability. Kind Regards Jane
Hi Plus1,
Thanks for this info. The combination of pain meds and Parkinson’s meds might explain a lot.
Hi, a couple of years ago my mum went into hospital following an undiagnosed fractured pelvis from a Parkinson’s related fall and almost immediately she was hallucinating and exhibiting dementia-like symptoms. I couldn’t make any sense of what she was saying to me and I thought I had lost her. After many phone calls (this was during the time when you couldn’t visit due to Covid) I found out that it had taken a long time for the hospital to give her the correct medication at the right time periods and I think this was the cause. She also cannot cope with changes of circumstances and this makes her very confused. She was later transferred to a respite home and then came back to her own house and pretty much returned to the coherent person she had been before. I now realise how vital it is for consistency with the meds. Some years later, she is certainly deteriorating but it feels more in line with the disease not a rapid change like when she went to hospital. I hope this helps.
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