Good Morning Brianna! Couple of questions if I may, Is your Dad home or is he in rehab? How old is he? Is he on medications? I’m asking these because of personal experience not only with myself (I ruptured) but experience with my parents.
Brain damage can certainly cause issues with reality as others perceive it. Age is another factor that can cause some issues. Medications can cause hallucinations. In ICU around week two I think it may have been, they gave me an IV of dexamethasone I believe it was. The result was a horrendous hallucination in which I scared the bejesus out of my wonderful RN. She ran and got one of the
CCU doctors and the med student. Dr. Walker immediately started flushing that crap out of me. Then the NeuroResidents showed up, one wanted me to discuss it, the other wanted me to not talk about it.
I would alert his doctors right away, no matter what’s causing it, they really need to know. It may simply be one of the medications, if any, he is on or it could be early onset dementia. Dementia is a real possibility for those of us who have ruptured.
There’s two camps of correcting someone or not. The way I look at it now, is the best camp is to be kind and patient. When BH’s Granny developed Alzheimer’s I was in the help to correct it, especially when she thought I was her deceased husband and wanted me to climb into bed with her. It happened a lot. What I learned was to just be kind and say something like “Now Granny you know I have work to do” then I would go outside and do some work. It caused a lot less stress for her. Then when my mom started having issues and would get mad because I didn’t see someone she saw, I learned to just ask short simple questions, which reduced her stress and mine. We kept sounds at a minimum that seemed to help. I know after rupture any loud sounds or too many distractions would throw me in a tizzy and keep me confused.
I am not saying your Dad has dementia or Alzheimer’s, but our healing after rupture can seem that way sometimes to others. I remember just having a family member or friend say “I love you” would help me back then. The feeling of being loved really helped in my healing processes.
Also keeping their sentences and questions short and direct helped a lot. I didn’t understand innuendos, and still don’t, but back then they would make me agitated and confused. My brain could only understand plain, simple and direct, so try speaking to him that way. My Speech Therapist gave BH a list that dealt with speaking to someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s, she gave it in front of me explaining that though I didn’t have either, it was a good way for family to communicate with me.
Getting off medications that made me have a different reality than others was a godsend.
So again, please let his doctors know what is going on. Check the all the side effects of any medications he is taking. More importantly, as a caregiver, you need to take some time for yourself to unwind. To care for yourself properly, will make him feel more at ease.
Please keep in touch,
Moltroub