More Clear Days

It's pretty amazing to watch my mom day in and day out.  I notice everything, probably because I've been her Care Giver for such a long time.

Since she's been off Lisinopril and back on the Cardio HTN and Cordyceps, her blood pressure is coming down gradually.  It's averaging 150/70 the past couple of days, it sure is better than 200/90+!

I had been getting worried with her blood pressure rising the more Lisinopril that she took.  I had read about rebounding on OTC's and Pharma drugs; rebounding is when you take a pill and it stops working all of a sudden.  The drug does the opposite of what it's designed to do for the body.  An explanation of rebounding as I understand it, if you take over the counter (OTC) pain medications for headaches, they can all of a sudden bring on headaches to beat the band.  For my mom, the Lisinopril appeared to raise her blood pressure instead of lowering it.  Yikes!

My mom's hallucinations were becoming more prevalent and scary as her blood pressure rose.  I saw a connection between scary hallucinations and elevated blood pressure.  Hallucinations were so real to her that she began hallucinating that I did things that made her angry.  This change was not welcome...  I am capable of making my mom angry with out the help of a hallucination of me!

Since my mom's been off the Lisinopril for the last 3 days, her constant dripping nose has stopped.  We may not run out of facial tissue so quickly.  A side effect of Lisinopril is a runny nose.  My mom is thrilled to not have to blow her nose all the time or have it drip while she sleeps. 

Hair loss is a side affect that has bothered my mom the most.  I do hope her hair grows back.  Her hair was always lush and beautiful.; hair that my mom loved.  The drugs that she had been prescribed over the years has contributed to her hair loss, a loss that has affected her emotionally for decades.  

Today is a great day.   Her hallucinations are not scaring her.  My dad showed up last night in her dream and she was able to distinguish between the dream and reality this morning.  She told me how she had a dream of my dad.  This doesn't sound like a big deal but it is... just yesterday I had to pretend call Dream Master to chase the people out of her room.

Could my mom be getting better?  I don't know but we will do what we can to help her regain her lost cognition.  I am beginning to believe that if we can keep her blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol within the normal range, her body and brain will be able to heal.  She eats a nutritious diet with brain healthy foods. 

Some may think I'm out of my mind, but folks thought that people like Edison were nuts too... the best part of all is that we have more clear days and this is a step in the right direction.

High Blood Pressure and Hallucinations

"I could kill you!" My mom exclaimed.

"Huh?  What did I do?  I was downstairs in the bathroom... I was putting on my night gown.  What did I do?" I asked puzzled.

'Oh, if you don't know, then... "  my mom said to me with an angry look.  A look that made me realize that a hallucination of me caused her to be angry.

WTF!?

I am not even in the room and I am now getting myself into trouble.  Is this a bad joke that the Universe is playing on me?

There's got to be a cause for the sudden change ...

Why?  A question that I asked myself over and over again.  I reviewed in my mind everything that was different; things that were out of the everyday routine.  I have observed that when my mom's routine is changed, it creates a disturbance of some kind.  I've also noticed that when my mom's blood pressure is high and uncontrolled, she hallucinates a lot more.

Last week, my mom went with my sister.  Her blood pressure had become elevated over the course of the month since she began taking more Lisinopril; my mom hallucinated a lot more. 
My husband and I expected a disturbance of some kind when my mom came back home, we just had no idea what to expect.

My mom she came home elated that she had seen my dad and he had spoken with her.  She believed that my brother-in-law sleeping on the sofa in Maine was my dad.  She wanted my sister to call our Naturopath Doctor to look dad over because he had been dead for 30 years.  In my mom's mind, my dad had resurrected from the dead.

Back home, getting out of the truck she saw my husband who welcomed her home and asked her about her time in Maine.  "It was a glorious time, it was amazing." She said to him with such enthusiasm, she was drunk with the joys of her visions of my dad.

Things backfired.

I made the mistake of telling my mom that my dad would be back in a couple of days.  For the first couple of days when she had returned, she was still super happy.  She walked from window to window, looking and watching for my dad.  She walked around the back yard when she wasn't walking in the house.  Over and over she would tell me about the people dressed in black and how they were waiting for the bus that would take them to heaven. 

Wednesday afternoon, everything fell apart.  My mom got mad because she couldn't see my dad.  She was pouting and saying things like, "I'll never see him again."  She was on the verge of crying. 

I screwed up.  I gave her a time frame as to when she'd see my deceased dad.  When dad didn't show up, she turned on me.  She began to hallucinate about me.  She got mad because her hallucination of me didn't speak to her.  My mom, she was so mad she wanted to punch me when she saw me for real. 

I did fix the timing thing, I told my mom that time is different here on Earth than in Heaven.  My dad's 2 days could be 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years.

Blood Pressure Control Issue

Her blood pressure has been much higher and hard to control since she stopped using Cardio HTN, a natural supplement that we get from our Naturopath Doctor.  A supplement that works great to control her blood pressure in a normal range consistently.

The supplement has magnesium in it which caused my mom a serious issue around the time we all got a stomach bug.  She stopped taking the Cardio HTN and her kidney doctor had us up her dose of lisinipril from 10mg per day to 20 mg per day. 

My mom's blood pressure kept going up.  It was back in the 200/90 range which seemed to cause her to have more cognitive problems.  She seems to hallucinate more when her blood pressure is elevated.

I contacted our Naturopath and asked him about Lisinopril, if it could be causing my mom to hallucinate more.   It can. 

Later I researched Lisinopril and discovered that a lot of folks who were once able to take the drug will suddenly form an allergy.  My mom's nose runs none stop, she has a dry cough and she has been complaining about joint pain... all side effects of Lisinopril.

Our ND has my mom taking the Cardio HTN and her blood pressure is back to normal today.  She's even dancing around with her headphones on, singing and dancing to the music on her mini mp3 player. 

It sure is good to have Ma back.  Every day my mom shows me that the body is amazing, that it can heal itself with the right care.  Food is important, real food that is nutritious.  I'm grateful to have a dancing mom today.  High Blood pressure and hallucinations appear to go hand in hand with my mom's condition.