I'm getting a lot of conflicting info, especially from Grandma's doctors and nurses. I thought that in later stages of dementia, the person was prone to making sounds such as moaning/groaning or what some people have called goat sounds. I thought that these sounds could be related to an unmet need (pain, hunger, etc.), but don't necessarily have to be - they may make the noises for no reason at all.
But Grandma's doctors and nurses don't seem to recognize that those sounds are a normal part of dementia. The one nurse was a home care nurse so I would think she would be most familiar with these sounds. The one doctor in the hospital did seem to be aware that dementia patients do vocalize at night (sundowning). She said they try not to medicate the patients, but sometimes they have to.
Please share your experience with this. Grandma's moaning/groaning is all over the place. She had stopped for a couple months, now she's back at it even worse than before. I can tolerate it during the day if I use headphones, but not while I'm trying to sleep. Also, I used to be able to giver her a lollipop to quiet her down, now that doesn't work so well. Last night while I was making supper she was sucking and making goat sounds at the same time (two noises that I HATE). I ended up grabbing my headphones and two margaritas. At least I ended up enjoying myself, lol! Don't worry, I'm way too anal and poor to become addicted to alcohol.
It absolutely astounds and disappoints me how the 'medical community' is so ignorant on SO many aspects of dementia, and how we, as a result, must resort to Google Doctor to figure things out. Fortunately, we have this wonderful forum to share experiences as well.
I work as a receptionist in a Memory Care community & I can vouch for the fact that MANY dementia sufferers DO make a myriad of noises, sounds, and odd statements over & over again. We had one resident who drove others crazy repeating "Oh honey" about 100x per hour. We have other residents who make sounds all the time, who hum various tunes, and make guttural noises in their throat. It's part of the disease, I'm afraid, and a very common occurrence.
All the best.