Hi there I’m new here and I am just looking for some advice or others views.
My father inlaw had a stroke on christmas day of 2022 he is currently in a hospital in a acute stroke unit being fed through a tube in his nose. We have noticed that he is getting emotional over the past couple of weeks and speaking about things that haven’t happened, shouting his wifes name when she is not in the room and telling us she slept at the end of the bed that night when she had not. He has also asked who the man was next to him when it was a pillow. We do know he is being slightly sedated because he has apparently been trying to pull the tubes out. What I’m wanting to find out is are hulucinations like this normal he also thought one of his children had died but they are fine and we tried to reasure him but he was quite upset. Its hard to see him in this way and it must be tough for him to. Any advice would be much appreciated.
@Natasha93 welcome to the forum although sorry to hear about your father in laws stroke.
Being emotional is very normal post stroke and this should improve over time.
I never had them myself but i have heard of others having hallucinations. This must be very distressing for you all. I have had very vivid dreams & they have been awful at times.
Thanks for your response it was a Ischemic stroke.
We were told they were slightly sedating him because of him pulling out the feeding tube he also has a glove on his hand to stop him doing that they mentioned to his sister that he kept trying to get out of the bed when he is unable to walk yet. They are not sedeting him to the point of putting him to sleep.
Welcome to the group
It’s very early days yet. Post stroke
there are an endless number of ways things in the brain can be affected. Patterns may emerge- expect it to take months not weeks to settle
It’s not unusual for vision to be affected and as the brain tries to make sense hallucinations can result
I’m always seeing the cat out of the corner of my eye and in reality it’s asleep in another room
Pulling out tubes, trying to get out of bed and other behaviours are also common enough that there were several people in my ward who did the same.
Have hope. Things take a while
Evening Natasha93 my mother had hallucinations that subsided after a time and then she fantasised, every one on her ward had a different story attachaded to them. After a few months she became her old self again. Twenty years later I get wacked, the first few days I had hallucinations and frightening though not disturbing dreams , assumed it was induced by drugs or brain coming to terms with what’s happened. Have read on here of others who have experienced the same. By the time I left hospital and came home they never reoccurred. All strokes are different and your father-in- laws brain is in the early stages of recovery, here’s hoping he makes a good recovery.
Surely the nursing staff should be able to reassure you that his behaviour at the present time will pass.
Hallucinatons are very distressing and my husband had them straight after his stroke last June. Seven months on and he is still getting them a lot. Has your father in law lost some of his sight? My husband has lost his right side peripheral vision and they think the hallucinations are part of Charles Bonnet Syndrome where the brain is unable to receive the correct information from the eye so fills in the gaps. Apparently this should go after 12 to 18 months with only occasional flash backs when tired or stressed. I know how hard it is to cope with this.
Sorry to hear about your husband and I hope he is recovering well. This is all very new to me so I have been researching as I go along. From researching about hallucinations I did hear about charles bonnet syndrome. We haven’t been told anything about his sight and when we have asked if he is able to see okay (asking him directly) he has said yes. It may be worth us mentioning to the nurses or team involved at the moment that he is having halucinations and maybe this is something they can further investigate. My father inlaw has english as a second language greek is his first. But the most recent halucinations have been that his wife is sleeping at the end of the bed when she hasnt and that she was at the hospital he was moved to yesterday evening and she was hiding behind the curtains. My partner explained to him in a very calm and collected way that maybe he is getting reality and dreams mixed up and reasuring his dad that these things didn’t happen. It’s such a tough situation and I can only imagine frustrating for him and anyone dealing with hallucinations as they seem so real to the person.
Thanks for taking the time to respond its great hearing from others to kind of gauge how strokes affect people. As you said it affects everyone differently. Hope you and your mother are both well.