Visions

[trampoline123]

During a chat last night, mum causally dropped that she's been having visions of a cat being on the front door step when she goes out. Not just once but a few times. She's petrified of cats.

I'd always associate visions with some kind of brain issue, worth her mentioning this to her doctor?

Yes. ( Unless there really is a cat).

Medication can cause things like this. Have a word with GP. It happens sometimes.

Why does she assume it’s not a cat?

How is she more generally? Does she have any sign of cognitive decline? Lewy Body Dementia can cause hallucinations at an early stage (hallucinations usually don't come until later with other forms of dementia). It also often causes sleep disturbance as well as confusion and difficulty processing complex tasks. Hopefully it's nothing of the sort, but thought it was worth mentioning.

Does she have macular degeneration.......if she does look up Charles Bonnet
Syndrome. Its promising that she knows it is an hallucination.

I would second Charles Bonnet syndrome. If sight is poor and a person cannot see a clear image, the brain fills in the blanks, hence seeing what is not actually there. My elderly aunt in hospital suffered from seeing what she called ‘models’. They were ugly and frightened her. We gently had to tell her that we couldn’t see them but believed she could. Later on I read about this syndrome so understood it more.

It’s great that she is recognising the hallucination. My late mother had vascular dementia and her auditory and visual hallucinations in the later stages were horrible and impacted us terribly.

Thank you all for your comments.

She does have bad eyes and is having to have injections, she's had 1 lot so far. They thought it was cataract at first and she often sees different colours and shapes but a clear cat was a bit concerning to me.

She is forgetful and she also shakes a lot, her jaw, arms head etc. she has told us she's had tests for Parkinson's and MD but I'm not sure how honest she is with us. My brother told me she recently refused a brain scan. She has sever health anxiety and avoids anything medical.

Do you think it's worth me ringing her GP to find out from her what's been discussed etc? I'm not sure if they'd tell me.

Several possible explanations: medication, dementia, urine infection, actual cat.

I hope she's not getting distressed about it?

Definitely worth mentioning to the GP

Now you mention she’s having injections for her eyes, it sounds as if it’s Charles Bonnet Syndrome. My mother gets them, involving faces and sometimes people, but she understands they’re not actually there it’s just her brain trying to be helpful.

Lewy Body Disease is closely linked to Parkinsons Disease so her hallucinations could be relevant here. One of my mother's first symptoms of LBD was thinking that a child was sitting on the sofa and she became very concerned that we might sit on him/her.

It is hard to know how to handle this as she is not lacking capacity, but clearly has problems. She has the right to refuse an MRI, which would give a definitive diagnosis; but even so I do think it would help those ordering her investigations to have the information about the hallucinations.

Do you think it's worth me ringing her GP to find out from her what's been discussed etc? I'm not sure if they'd tell me. They won’t tell you without her permission

My dad also has Charles Bonnet syndrome, has injections for macular degeneration. The hallucinations get worse when his sight is deteriorating, then it stabilises and they ease off. The eye clinic don’t seem to mention them, but he and mum go to macular society meetings / socials and there they are very common. He knows they aren’t real.

I was thinking Charles Bonnet syndrome my friends dad had it and he saw all sorts of weird things

Looking back my mum had hallucinations for a long while - both visual and audible. She lived in the granny annex right outside my daughter's window and near our bedroom window and she would say that she heard someone banging on the door in the middle of the night or that the dogs (all of which slept in our bedroom by our bed) had been barking all night.

When she went into hospital she said that there were children riding their bikes around the ward and also she saw Chris Whitty's deputy with her teenage son who was in the hospital for a meeting.

When she moved to the care home there was a little man living in her wardrobe, "the farmer" would bring his cows through the dining room and our dogs would still be barking and keeping her awake all night (even though the home is 8 miles away!)

Mum doesn't have a formal diagnosis but she has a tremor and her left hand is now curled into a claw shape and can't be straightened.

Other common early symptoms of Lewy Body Dementia are sleep disturbance, loss of taste or smell, problems with spatial perception, a bodily lean to one side, and variable consciousness (napping often or zoning out). My relative with LBD had the first two of those symptoms many years before the rest.

She is forgetful and she also shakes a lot, her jaw, arms head etc. she has told us she's had tests for Parkinson's and MD but I'm not sure how honest she is with us

How is her walking? This is exactly how my mum was about a year ago, and the tell for Parkinson-type symptoms that all medical staff picked up straight away was her stiff, slow walk. She also started to lose the ability to use every day objects like the microwave or tv remote. She also had macular degeneration and was seeing people out of the corner of her eye, but like your mum she also knew it wasn’t real.

we were told that her symptoms could be Parkinson’s, could be Lewie Body (ticks virtually all the boxes), could be vascular disease (she also had a brain scan). Apparently the only was they could diagnose definitively is by post-mortem. They are treating as if it’s Parkinson’s as it’s all the same part of the brain, and the medication she is on is having a positive affect.

if your mum still has capacity, then ultimately it’s up to her how much she engages with the medics, as frustrating as it is to sit back and watch.

If its Parkinsons or LBD, there are scans that can aid diagnosis, though as @funnelfan says, they can only definitively diagnose post mortem. My relative had a (private) DAT scan, and they were confident to diagnose LBD on the basis of that plus symptoms.

Agree re Charles Bonnet syndrome, my MIL has this. I guess your brain is trying to fill the gap in vision with something Random from subconscious. She saw long ago pets. Once she understood she wasn’t going mad she was much more relaxed about it.

It could be an issue with her eye sight. Macular degeneration can cause visual hallucinations.