Hallucinations in an 83 Year Old Male (My Dad)
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Dad is 83 this year. Mom died 7 years ago. He’s been alone since then, although I live with him and take care of him the best I can. He hasn’t really needed much until recently - I just couldn’t bare the thought of him living alone.
Recently, he has started having hallucinations. He has seen some wild things - even right in front of me. Things that are clearly not there - not for me anyway.
He has congestive heart failure and stage 3 chronic kidney disease. He has high blood pressure and diabetes. He has had 3 stents put in. Those have been his health problems for the last several years. He does not have memory problems and other than these hallucinations, he seems to be of sound mind - well grounded in reality.
His last cardiologist follow-up visit was about 3 weeks ago. The doctor ordered blood work to check his kidney function, since he had to use dye to place the stent and his kidney function already wasn’t great. When these hallucinations started (Thursday), we had not already done the blood work, so I used that as an excuse to get a visit with his primary doctor (they do his blood work at the office).
They did the blood work the cardiologist ordered, along with some others. They took a urine sample. They checked his A1C (although I don’t know what the result was - other than it ‘wasn’t too bad’.)
The nurse called me today (Monday) to tell me everything was normal - mostly. His protein in his urine was a little elevated. His kidney function had declined a little more. His BP was 113/70 and his heart rate was 108. His oxygen was 94. They also did an EKG and it was better than expected.
I’ve got a lot of research to do about hallucinations in elderly people, but I just wanted to see if anyone has any similar experience or any thoughts on what could be going on. The doctor said nothing is standing out that he can pin it on.
I’m just confused as to why he may be having hallucinations if he knows they aren’t real and his mental faculties are otherwise ‘all there’. For some reason, I assumed if someone were having hallucinations like this, they would be withdrawn or otherwise in their own world.
Also, after the bad bouts of hallucinations, he has fallen twice over the weekend while sleeping in his chair. He also saw my mom last night and had a short conversation with her.
Hoping someone has some insight!
Thanks!
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