For a month or so Mom hasn't volunteered info about visual hallucinations, or maybe they've not been clear to her, but today, she saw a bunch of words: Baldwin earlier; and now, while watching but not really seeing the baseball game on TV: singleton, swindleton (!), yellow, red, mangos (without an E, I asked), greens, pansies, and she still sees Baldwin.
We've been working on vision recently. Did we reconnect something?
#stroke #dementia #ElderCare #OldBrains #CharlesBonnetSyndrome @caregivers

Mom, eating a piece of brownie with a fork, looking at the fork: SANTA
Me: Where do you see that?
Mom: Before CLAUS
Laughter all around.
A few minutes later, Mom, looking at another piece of brownie on her fork, under her breath: santa

* * *
Then taking her pills, with me prompting at each one: Look to your left, do you see it?
Mom: NAG
Me: NAG?!
Mom: There’s an N and a G, so, NAG
Me: Hmmm

#CBS #CharlesBonnetSyndrome #VisualHallucinations #OldOld #ElderCare #RightHemisphereStroke

Today's words:
ICICLE
FREEDOM

A fair impression of the afternoon. First feeling discouraged, stymied, frozen, stuck in bed. ICICLE.Then PT arrives and we get my mom walking (haltingly) out of the bedroom and to her living room recliner. That's when she sees FREEDOM. Small step forward. Later, tonight's Wingmom* and I get her back to bed.

#Hallucinations #CBS #CharlesBonnetSyndrome #VisualReleaseSyndrome #MacularDegeneration #Stroke #Caregiving #ElderCare #Hemianopsia
*https://www.wingmomde.com/

So, on Jan 22 I was asking about methods of learning braille -- for myself. Nine days later, and my mom has a stroke resulting in vision deficit (but she still has her visual hallucinations). Also on Jan 22, in conversation here about bringing in more caregiving assistance, with reluctance. Now that my mom's out of the hospital, I can't get people here fast enough. #Stroke #ElderCare #Hemianopsia #Adapting #CharlesBonnetSyndrome

The crippling condition which many health experts don’t know about | The Independent
#CharlesBonnetSyndrome
#CBS

Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) can cause vivid, and sometimes frightening, visual hallucinations but few health experts are aware of it

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/charles-bonnet-syndrome-health-condition-b2267440.html

3/4 BTW, I found a possible medical description of her behavior: Visual release hallucinations aka Charles Bonnet Syndrome
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_release_hallucinations
The article doesn’t mention letters, but says the images are tiny. Today the letters were the size of the holes in a piece of matzo. Approx 1-2 mm in size. Another similarity: my mother has macular degeneration and is functionally blind in her left eye. (Right eye works.)
#CharlesBonnetSyndrome #AMD #OldOld #OldBrains #SeeingThings