She imagined a small boy came to visit her also...I think that was just a dream. Hearing voices...is that due to her severe hearing loss or could it be some early sign of dementia? She is 91 and mentally still pretty sharp.
My Mum hears a little boy crying, and we have a whole story about this abused child which varies slightly each time she talks about it. She is in the early stages of alz/dementia and is in an old peoples home. It worries her a lot but she lives in the UK and we live in RSA! When my sister and myself visited last year, my sister would tell her it's in her head - I would accept what she was telling me as truth. My way helped her - my sister's way upset her!
You may need to replace the hearing aid or just the batteries. I notice when I hug one of our neighbors her hearing aid gives off a high pitched sound. They are malfunctioning somehow.
Ginach. I don't think you need to be concerned about the apparitions your Dad is seeing. Do live in a very old house? They could be previous residents.
My mom, who also wore a hearing aid until she lost it, used to hear music a lot...but it was church hymns! ;-) Could be worse. She had tinnitus too, but it seemed like the music thing was just a long phase of the dementia perhaps.
My mother has also heard singing so clearly she thought the people next door were playing the stereo. Just ask your mom what the song is!! There was Three Blind Mice and also a song I didn't recognize. She sang it for me: "I'm coming, I'm coming for my head is bending low: I hear those gentle voices calling, Old Black Joe.
I googled "Old Black Joe" and wiki said it was now considered racist and making fun of Old Black Joe, a slave. Hearing it from the lips of my 83-year-old mother with dementia and where she and my father are now in life I know that is not what this is about.
I learned the words and we sang it together. It helped distract from the annoyance of hearing a song and it brought me into her world, too-- and history. I think of such sharing with my mother as a precious window into the past that will soon close from living memory, since this song was old even when my mother was a child in the 1930s:
OLD BLACK JOE Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay, Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away, Gone from the earth to a better land I know, I hear their gentle voices calling "Old Black Joe". Chorus I’m coming, I’m coming, for my head is bending low: I hear those gentle voices calling, "Old Black Joe".
My mom experienced the exact same thing. We all figured it was because of her dementia. She heard a man singing opera and kept asking us if we heard him, too !
For an unrelated reason, we happened to take her to the audiologist - who found that Mom had shoved a hearing aid battery into each ear. It took the ENT, using his super-duper ear vacuum, to suck the batteries (with tabs still attached) out of Mom's ears. She hasn't heard the opera singer since.
A friend of mine who is an audiologist told me that it's not uncommon for an elderly person with dementia to mistakenly put batteries directly in their ears instead of in the hearing aid. She's seen it happen quite often.
The batteries may very well be picking up some signal, but I suggest you definitely rule this out as a reason by taking her to the ENT ASAP.
My dad (88) does not wear hearing aids and he both hears people singing usually at night and has also 'seen' a man dressed as a soldier in his bedroom. He primary care physician did not seem concerned when we told her about the singing. My dad functions fairly well as long as he keeps to a routine. Should I be concerned?
I have hearing aids my battery reminder is a mans voice in left ear and woman's in the right. Could be that ar she is just dreaming. My mom hears things all the time awake or asleep. If she is not stressed about it just let it go. My mom is 97. So I leather have her little things.
I have heard that hearing aids can pick up the signal from a radio station, there may be a loose solder connection in her hearing aid, have them checked out for her. Also, I have heard that people can experience tinnitus, and it presents differently in different people. Also people have picked up radio wave signals through dental implants and other devices inplanted in their bodies.
I have heard that hearing aids can pick up the signal from a radio station, there may be a lose solder connection in her hearing aid, have them checked out for her. Also, I have heard that people can experience tinnitus, and it presents differently in different people. Also people have picked up radio wave signals through dental implants and other devices inplanted in their bodies.
I have heard stories about hearing aids picking up a radio signal but I'm not sure if that is true. Newer hearing aids are very specialized. Since your mom is so specific about what she hears, it's not static, obviously. I'd just watch her closely. She may doze off or just become lonely and sleepy and either dream or imagine the voices.
Some dementia can cause people to hear a voice, but since she shows no other signs of an issue, there is likely some simpler explanation. Even so, I'd talk to her doctor about it. Take care, Carol
I googled "Old Black Joe" and wiki said it was now considered racist and making fun of Old Black Joe, a slave. Hearing it from the lips of my 83-year-old mother with dementia and where she and my father are now in life I know that is not what this is about.
I learned the words and we sang it together. It helped distract from the annoyance of hearing a song and it brought me into her world, too-- and history. I think of such sharing with my mother as a precious window into the past that will soon close from living memory, since this song was old even when my mother was a child in the 1930s:
OLD BLACK JOE
Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,
Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,
Gone from the earth to a better land I know,
I hear their gentle voices calling "Old Black Joe".
Chorus
I’m coming, I’m coming, for my head is bending low:
I hear those gentle voices calling, "Old Black Joe".
For an unrelated reason, we happened to take her to the audiologist - who found that Mom had shoved a hearing aid battery into each ear. It took the ENT, using his super-duper ear vacuum, to suck the batteries (with tabs still attached) out of Mom's ears. She hasn't heard the opera singer since.
A friend of mine who is an audiologist told me that it's not uncommon for an elderly person with dementia to mistakenly put batteries directly in their ears instead of in the hearing aid. She's seen it happen quite often.
The batteries may very well be picking up some signal, but I suggest you definitely rule this out as a reason by taking her to the ENT ASAP.
Some dementia can cause people to hear a voice, but since she shows no other signs of an issue, there is likely some simpler explanation. Even so, I'd talk to her doctor about it.
Take care,
Carol