My mom is a 72-yr-old dependent. She goes to the store, walking, to the bank or takes the bus the around corner from her home. She has diabetes and high blood pressure. It's been a year that once a week she calls me at 1am crying that the upstairs neighbor is spraying raid or a chemical on second floor and the odor is coming to her apt thru the sprinkler or lights causing her to not be able to breathe. My sister did go once to check and said it did smell bad. She open the windows for air to come in. I feel like she's the one that is spraying because she has air fresheners for the odor. 3 weeks ago she called me again, I went and didn't smell anything. She called me this week today at 1:30am crying that she called the cops because the smell was so bad she wanted to throw up. The cops didn't smell anything. I don't know what to do. She's smart and independent. She doesn't want to live with me or my sister and she says she's happy there. It is just the smell that is bothering her. She wants to move to another apt, which I relayed to the manager, but there's none available at the moment. I feel like she's the one spraying it. She will call me at night and tell me there are men breaking into cars because she has a view to the parking lot, but the alarms don't go off and she says they go inside the apts and that she could hear them slam the door. I didn't believe her, but someone called the cops and caught 3 dudes going into cars... So what do you guys think?
2. Keep track of when she is making these phone calls to you for one week.
3. Make an appointment for mom to see her doctor and YOU accompany her to the doctor. Type out a summary of this issue for the doctor beforehand and give it to the receptionist when you check in.
Mom needs to be seen. This delusion could be related to a UTI, dementia, a brain tumor or a slew of things that cannot possibly be known until she is examined.
If her apartment was cheaply built I can completely believe that she's smelling something from upstairs. I still remember my college apartment -- a cinder block building built in the 1940s -- where I noticed smoke coming out of one of my electrical outlets. Turned out it was pot smoke from my stoner neighbor wafting through the outlet on the other side of the wall.
Some people are super sensitive to smells. Is your mom that way?
Have you tried speaking with her landlord? He could investigate the situation and get back to you.
Maybe there is some underlying reason for this but I wouldn’t automatically assume that there is. I would have the landlord thoroughly investigate the situation first.
If you start to see unusual behavior in other areas or if she is developing certain patterns, then I would have questions as to why is she behaving like this.
I wouldn’t have an issue with her moving to a new unit. You could ask if she could be placed on a waiting list.
Good luck with finding the solution to this mystery smell!