overreaction to pain

[stephanieen]

Hello, my Mom and I live with and have been taking care of my Grandma who has dementia. She sleeps most of the day sitting in a recliner and often she wakes up completely startled and begins crying eventually.  She usually thinks someone told her she was bad and is being kicked out of her house but can't remember what she did. (No one has told her anything like this ) or she is thinking about her parents or sister who has passed away,  or she is worried that the animals are going to starve to death. Anyway,  when she thinks negatively it is accompanied by a constant feeling of being extremely cold (even when the house is roasting and she has a hot water bottle and blankets covering her),also she will start saying 'Ouch! Ouch!' and touching her fingertips saying that it feels like something is biting her or like electric shocks. Sometimes it is even going down her arms and in her armpits. My question is is this something that is related to the dementia? Is it normal or something else?  We have wondered sometimes if it is a heart problem but the doctors have looked at her arteries and seem to think everything is fine. Also electric shock is usually nerve related isn't it?

[stephanieen]

Thank you for your comments, it's nice that they have a site like this for support :-) again thank you, it is reasurring to know that this is something that others are experiencing also and normal.

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

so sorry shes going throught this. first let me say i have a mother who lives with me that has the same thing and has had it now for 7 years, she also has the cold feelings no matter what we do , she told us shes cold on the inside. her dr belives its nerves from the diease and it comes and goes .

my mom says all kinds of things, they go back to childhood or anything they might hear on radio/tv they think has happen to them.
i would say not heart related , if dr has checked h er out am sure she is fine. she will go throught many different stages of this diease and it just gets worse. its us as the caretakers that has to go throught so much pain watching them go down. so plz take care of ya's selfs and get lots sleep eat good and get away from time to time.

[TheLightSeeker]

Hi stephanieen.
She's re-experiencing probably the effects of a past event.
Her emotion from that event got associated at the time with the cold temperature,or the emotion from that event produced  a cold feeling in her.
Same with the other sensations she's experiencing. As far as she's concerned, they're real and what the mind imagines or remembers vividly,
the body can sense strongly without changing anything in the enviroment!
Just keep reassuring her that everything is fine.
Take care,
Niko