I apologize if I have mentioned this before. A few months back, Gary was driving back from his family’s house and became convinced he had flies in his hair and (giggle) a snake in his pants.
He told me this story when he got home, I looked up “delusions in older men,” and I became convinced he has Parkinson’s. There are even tremors (which he claims he has had all his life).
This morning, we were getting ready to leave for the family homestead, we were discussing some strange sound and he said, “Oh, that’s the bathroom fan. I know, it sounds weird. At first I thought that was one of my delusions, like the hair flies and the pants snake –“
“So you’re still having the delusions, then?” I asked.
“Well, I’m still taking the medication, so I’m still having the delusions.” And then he blinked at me as if to say, we talked about this, right?
No. We had not talked about this. And we didn’t talk about it this morning either, because I asked if he had confirmed this with a doctor and he huffed at me.
Come to find out that of the four medications he is on, guess how many list delusions as a side effect? Four! I’m amazed he isn’t petting the ferrets that are nesting in his chest hair.
4 responses to “Delusional”
Oh. Uh. Uh.
Yeah.
That… does sort of seem like something to mention to a doctor? Although apparently he’s working around the delusions really efficiently, such that you didn’t actually know he was still having them? So maybe he’s learned to tell them apart?
Or maybe not. Hm. (half terrifying, half maybe-it’s-okay?)
KC – he claims he has mentioned it to the doctor, and the doctor said it was from “the medication.” With the flies snake episode he thought the flies were real until he imagined the snake. Then he knew it was not real.
Good on him for figuring it out based on the snake! That is some high-level reasoning skills. Weird, weird things do occasionally happen (as a child, I witnessed my father get licked in the face by a buffalo), but it is indeed *very* unlikely that you would have both a pant snake and hair flies at the same time while in the car!
(I’d probably want to check with the doctor, and also do a bit of inquiry as to how Gary is separating the delusions now. You don’t want to discover a surprise raccoon in the bathtub just because he thought it surely wasn’t real…)
KC – well, he did say that he talked to the doctor, so I have to take him at his word. I have the same neurologist and GP, and sometimes I give them heads up, but usually they know the score before I even say anything to them.