My mom has vascular dementia and spends all day everyday in a state of fear and anguish with what she thinks is going on. I can redirect for for about 3 minutes tops then she is back in this state of horror......the bus is picking her up to take her to the lake to be drown....the long term care staff is planning a gang rape on her...bugs are in every opening of her body...she is eating ground up humans....it is worse than a bad horror film.The doctors only have her on a mild dose of seriquil which does not seem to help. They are afraid the meds will cause more TIAs. Her facility is minutes from my house so I make 3 short visits a day. When I am not there she calls crying in fear...screaming for me to come and then goes over it all again. I try to imagine what her world is like right now and I cry for her. Any ideas? She is consumed by this. I have attempted many activities to distract her but like I said 3 minutes is her top attention span most days.
Maybe an increase in the seroquel will help.
I understand that doctors don't want to risk more TIAs, but for heavens sake, who wants to live like this? Would another TIA really be worse. Impress on the medical staff that it is critically important to restore some kind of peace to your mother's life, even if that carries some risks!