Mom is going on 92 and was diagnosed with early dementia 4 yrs ago. I'm her caregiver so I see progression of the dementia although sometimes it's hard for me to tell whether it's old age or dementia. Her hearing is very bad (refuses to wear hearing aid). For about 6 months now, she hears voices at night or when she's napping. She has woken me up at night to tell me someone is knocking at the door . Of course there is no one. Yesterday she woke up and went to open the door..she said I called her name and told her someone had a letter for her.again..didn't happen.
She is also waking up at night ,thinking it's daytime, and wanting to get ready to go to bingo. I tell her it's nightime, she argues and thinks I'm lying to her. Im pretty sure this is the dementia.
Anyone else experience things like this? I've called her doctor several times but he never responds. I worry that her confusion is dangerous to herself.
There is a menu across the top of the page here that has a lot of information about diseases common in elderly people. It is a good starting place to learn about dementia. There are also several threads devoted to handling the problems that come up when dealing with dementia. I think you will gain a lot of insight reading what others have written and knowing that you are not alone in what is happening.
For example, an elderly woman near me saw smoke in her house, but could not understand why it was there. She called her son who lives 300 miles away for an explanation. He in turn called the daughter, who lives across the street from mom and dad. She got them out of the house, but it was a total loss. Dad was charged with starting a fire. Both parents are now in memory care.