#236 Parkinson's Hallucinations and Some New Photos

 

Our front yard frosted with hail.

#236 Perception and Pictures

Crocus in our front garden.

The pictures in this post were actually taken this past month by me. They are real photographs taken on Lumix ZS100 or Nikon Z50ii cameras. It’s the first time in quite a while that I’ve felt good enough to get out and shoot some new photos, even if they are just ordinary—most were taken at the Canby Community Pond which is always full of friendly fowl and rodents.

Hallucinations and Delusions

John, Anne’s cousin, responded to the last blog post [Thank you, John!] with a story about his cat called Ghost. Ghost was a found gray cat like my George and got his name from his ability to seemingly disappear on walks and reappear later in the walk. John’s story made me consider telling about the fact that George The Cat seems to be haunting me even now. Every so often when I’m in bed the covers (usually just a sheet) will fall in on me like it would when George would curl up on the bed at night. I know there’s no cat that just got on the bed, but it’s hard to ignore the motion of the covers is like George is right there. Either the ghost of George has just crawled onto bed to settle in for the night or it’s a Parkinson’s disease hallucination.

A bullhead or common goldeneye?

A pair of ???

A newly rebuilt garden path.

That brings me to this post’s information about living with PD. As many as 50% of Parkinson’s sufferers over the course of their time with the disease will be affected by hallucinations and/or delusions. These affects will be in the form of seeing things that aren’t really there (people living or deceased, animals living or deceased, objects), hearing sounds that aren’t real (extraneous sounds, music, voices), other sensory manifestations, paranoia (believing people are watching you or talking about you), and false beliefs (fears of loved ones stealing from you, putting you in harm’s way, or being unfaithful). The causes of these hallucinations and delusions are varied, but most can be attributed to the natural progression of the disease (changes in the brain) or the side effects of dopamine therapy where the increase of dopamine in the brain may cause the effects. If natural progression is the suspected cause then certain drugs may give help. If drugs are the cause then a change of dosage as well as a change of treatment drugs may be the solution.

Alas poor Yorick...

With Parkinson’s related hallucinations visual images are the most common type. The hallucinations may be minor called passage images (like shadows) or major called presence. Most of PD patients who experience hallucinations say that while startling at first, they actually get fairly used to them. Most patients know the hallucinations aren’t real, but still find them unsettling. One of the members of my support group said that her hallucination came in the form of a cat—she knew it wasn’t real because it was polka dotted and wearing a yellow bow tie. If I have to include hallucinations in my PD symptoms I hope that they aren’t the paranoid delusional type, but rather the mild kind, like George’s ghost. Although, I don’t think I would mind meeting the polka dot cat as long as he was still wearing the yellow bow tie.  

Wood Duck

Wood duck circles and reflections.

He'll see what he can do.

Next: I like the idea of new photos. I'll see what I can do.

Spring Sunset in Canby