@Mandy76 That's very interesting to read, did your Mum have low sodium at the end of April when you say the dementia happened overnight? Did she have a urinary infection? Based on your experience I would definitely contact the Dr to have them try to find out why the levels are dropping and try to stabilize them, if only to prevent another episode. It is only my experience with my Mum that has made me believe that either the depletion of sodium or the rate at which they replaced it that contributed to the 'vascular event' that seemed to result in her rapid decline into dementia. @Rosserk's experience seems to have the same factors. Of course in each of our cases a urinary infection actually started the chain of events, so who really knows. Just another mystery in trying to make any sense of this horrid disease. Best of luck .
Well when she suddenly went strange, we took her to the doctor and they did blood tests and tested for UTIs but everything came back normal. Her sodium wasn't outwith the normal levels at that point. But it was only when I requested a print out of her results after the hospitalisation in July, it had all the previous blood tests she had on it, and that is when I noticed the sodium gradually dropping. It was like 143, then six months later 141, then six months after that 139 - by the time she was hospitalised it was 126. After it was treated, it went back up.
She is now back in hospital with constant delusions and she's been in there for nearly 5 weeks so far. I just wonder if depleting minerals in the body could trigger something and should doctors be on the lookout for this type of thing, like look at the pattern not just the current level?