[sophiedog]

My father is 87 and very fit physically, but for the last 6 months he has been suffering from delusions. He has macular degeneration and is 90% blind as well. My mother, who is 67, is his primary caretaker. I have 2 half sisters, a half-brother and a brother who live 9 hours away. My dad thinks something is coming out of his head, sometimes it's wax or styrofoam, he claims he can see inside his skull. He has been tested for alzheimers but doesn't have it and he has had all the scans and stuff for brain damage, tumors, etc. We have had to rush him to the ER over this, he thinks his head is going to blow up. Other than that and some delusions over other physical problems that he doesn't have, he is sharp as a tack and can remember things perfectly.
Personally (and I have talked with doctors and nurses) I believe he is just suffering from old age dementia ( they have put him on meds that seem to work but he won't take them because they make him feel funny and mom won't make him) but my family keeps finding other reasons for his behavior. The latest is my half sisters new find on something called Charles Bonnet syndrome. I looked it up and it doesn't fit my dad, but she has the whole family excited that this is what may be wrong. No one wants to admit he's just getting old and his brain is breaking down.
I am so frustrated, my mom keeps me on the phone at least 4 to 5 hours a day over this and now this new 'breakthrough' is the big thing. I try to tell her that you have to look at everything, my sisters just seeing part of the story, the symptoms that dad has - not the ones he doesn't have. People with this know they are seeing things that aren't really there, dad insists that all this stuff is real. He even wants to go back to the eye institute and have the radiation removed!
Thanks for letting me vent, this whole thing is about to drive me nuts! I wish they would make him take the meds and let him get old gracefully and stop their denial that his brain is just wearing out.