A hospital stay for 88 year old Mom with blood clots in lungs and things she told me. I don’t know what to think.

My mom had the same thing when she had sepsis due to a U T I that had gotten way out of hand. She was seeing blue birds staring at her at the end of her bed and was writing me a letter at one point. None of it made any sense. I think this is quite common. If it were to continue after she is released from hospital I would be concerned.

An ER doctor once told us that there's a condition which unfortunately I can't remember (good post, right?!)    It was either ER psychosis or ER delirium, from the consistent noises of the monitors.    

I began carrying little ear plugs in my purse, but I found that they were ineffective at blocking out hospital monitoring sounds.

I'm just guessing now b/c I'm not a medical person, but I'm wondering if the clots in her lungs affected her breathing, especially if she wasn't on oxygen, and there was enough of a deprivation level to cause the hallucinations. 

Or maybe she was given Ambien; that can cause hallucinations.   In fact, my sister and one of her friends who's a nurse were the ones who told about Ambien induced hallucinations.

Ah, "hospital delirium, this is very common in older folks, and also in young people who have had major surgery.

Imagine trying to sleep at night in the hospital :P There is always some type of noise and talking in the hallways, thus a patient gets awoken numerous times, not to mention the lab techs that show up at 5 a.m. to draw blood. You also wake up not realizing where you are. The bed isn't very comfortable, and the TV is way up on the wall which makes it difficult to watch. Shall we chat about the food? Need to make a bathroom stop, you also have to drag in the IV you are attached to via the IV pole but it's plugged into the wall. And lets throw in a room-mate who has visitors around the clock.

Gosh that brings back memories when I was in the hospital and had a mild case of delirium. I couldn't wait to get home. The fire alarm going off at midnight didn't help matters, either.

Sounds like hospital delirium to me. My mother had it pretty bad last time she was hospitalized with pneumonia and saw lots of things that weren't there. It's a pretty common phenomenon with the elderly when ill and in the hospital or rehab and out of their regular environment. Google 'hospital delirium' and read all about it. I was pretty shocked to witness it with my mother (who was 92 at the time) but the nurse explained it to me, then I read all about it, and it calmed me down. She got back to normal once she got back to the ALF