My husband and I take care of his grandfather who is 88 and has Alzheimers for about 2 years now. He has always been the type to like attention and this seems to have just gotten worse.
I have tried to research a certain situation that had happened the other day. He complained of a "sour stomach" . He had no typical symptoms of a stomach bug. No vomitting or diarrhea. Kept saying he could not hold anything down. He drank lots of water and held it down as well as a sandwich. The next day he was in a complete panic and said he was hot and sweating and his stomach hurt. He refused to go to the ER. He calmed down and slept. LAter that day he complained again and would not eat all day. We took him to his Primary care dr. Nothing was wrong and it seemed like he almost did not know why we were there. That night I made him eat some soup. He was fine. Late that night he frealed out. Refused ER again. The next morning same thing, this time he had no choice and we spent 5 hours in the ER and nothing was wrong. No UTI, no virus etc. He had an xray and a catscan, blood work and urine test. He ate fine that night and took a long nap. He started complaining the next night again..............not as much in a panic but I do not know what to do................... help
Sometimes people having cardiac (heart) troubles will experience the pain as being from the "stomach" and it could help to check that out - sometimes medications will help with that at least for a time and make him more comfortable, while just acid blocking meds for "sour stomach" won't really do as much if that's the case.
Your being there and caring and trying to help him make any sense at all out of what's happening is probably the best comfort to him...at LEAST as good as getting the right medicine for it.
Yes the contrast I was referring to was the catscan. His GP is horrible. Seriously in denial about the alzheimer's. Does not listen to me until i keep correcting my grandfather in law answers . Yea hes my husbands grandfather . Not father . So anyway his GP treats my FIL MIL AND BIL and so my GFIL wont go to anyone else. I usually just nod and agrew with him like you suggested, which is great advice . I learned that the hard way. I correct him when he says he has not eaten or something like that. I oniw what ge eats because either myself or the aides give it to him. Hes diabetic and was eating everything so about 6 months ago i had to not leave any food around . He lives upstairs so I bring up.wgst heceats for the morning. The aide gives him lunch and i cook him dinner .
So update - tonight at dinner no complaints and ate all his dinner. ....
A barium swallow (again, this could be really old-fashioned, I'm not sure) would be to do with the x-ray, and would show up any anomalies from his throat down to his stomach - literally, you glug the stuff down and it highlights all the bits it coats. They use it to show up hernias and obstructions and so on.
Your poor FIL is catching hold of any shreds of memory that fit his limited picture of what's going on. So when he was talking to the friend, he knew there was something to do with a hospital and he grabbed the nearest memory he could, which was well out of date but roughly a fit. I know it can drive you to drink; but don't contradict him - just agree, and then add the accurate information to remind him. Or just agree! - if it doesn't really matter :)
If I were you I should ask your FIL's GP to review the test results from the ER and reassess his current prescriptions. There's no point in his going in to hospital unless they have a better plan than poking him with a stick and seeing what happens; but there could be other investigations the GP would like done. Maybe keep a food diary meanwhile? Give you something to do besides wring your hands, and you'll have an accurate account to give the doctor. I'm sorry, this must be very worrying for you.
And whether or not he noticed the symptoms could conceivably depend on a) what he was eating or drinking and b) whether or not he'd taken prescribed or over-the-counter antacids. That would explain the on-off aspects.
It's terribly difficult when you can't get sensible answers out of a person. My mother's GP remarked tongue-in-cheek (I didn't take offence because I understood what she meant) that we were "getting into the realms of veterinary medicine…" That being so, though, all you can really do is watch him and make soothing noises meanwhile. But if he's got Alzheimer's in full swing, then even if you were the type to say pull yourself together and stop making such a fuss you'd be wasting your breath - pointless as well as heartless! I'm sorry you're having this worry, hope it proves to be nothing sinister and settles down before long.