Thank you for sharing your story. My husband is 77 and is experiencing hallucinations and non-logical ideas along with Parkinson's motor symptoms. The dilemma about anti-psychotic drugs and Parkinson's medications is real. I need to make plans and decisions while also trying to live in the present. Your comments are helpful!

Thank- you for your recounting of your situation. My mother has gone from a lively loving wife, mother, friend and family member to a person living in a web of psychosis. The Parkinson's diagnosis was made when she was 89. She is now 90. The slip from functional to non-functional has been so rapid ( even with medication) that it is startling. My father , through patience and kindness has cared for her with my assistance over the past year, but we recently hired a lovely young lady to help 3 evenings a week. I am a nurse and work hours away from my home. Ironically, I care for geriatric patients experiencing exactly what my mother is diagnosed with, as well as other critical illnesses. I have loved being a nurse for 45 years. But all of my knowledge and experience cannot keep me even keeled with my mothers illness. Yes, she is hallucinating and delusional and over the past 2 days she has not had a minute of any sense of reality. 2 days ago she saw her neurologist and was able to tell him what day/year it was and could spell the word "world" backwards. She has had episodes of bizarre behavior over the past year, but now it is her norm so we have started giving her an anti psychotic medication. I hope it calms her for my father's sake even more than for her sake. He, is wearing down, as he is not a clinical person, but a logical one and there is no logic ( cause and effect) to understand this. We are close and have had many talks. He does have some short term memory lapses, so he often forgets what I have told him but he is always ready to listen and act on advice. He is slowly coming to the understanding that she will not recover and is not like his 'bride', as he calls her, of 70 years. It is heartbreaking to watch him. Because it has been a good marriage of caring and love with a hefty side dish of humor, he cannot fathom how this has happened with such severity and suddenness.
I don't know what the immediate future holds, but I do know that you are so correct in "living in the here and now" - not planning ahead nor looking back. To think about either side of the present reality is emotionally eviscerating .
I am sure you felt like you were living in an alternate reality as I do and as my father does.
Again I thank- you. You have allowed me to feel better for this 10 minutes. And your words have given me a "hug" of support.

With gratitude,
j

Excellent information for caregivers and receivers. Very few people understand the psychosis factors and it takes a reall effort and understanding to deal with it.