2 week brain difference?

[wolfskies]

My mom was taken to the hospital at the end of October. They said other than a UTI, she was fine. They claimed they gave her a CT Scan of her brain and didn't find anything wrong with it. Fast forward to Monday, and she has full-blown dementia symptoms. I was pretty sure she was diagnosed with this several years back, but one hospital said no and the new one was like, yes.

Is it really possible that this level of dementia can "appear" in a little more than two weeks? Did the other hospital lie to me so they didn't have to send her to rehab? She is almost non-verbal except moaning, yelling oww, and yelling help, please and a name. Calling for dead people and living. She went from accusing me of trying to make her look crazy and trying to steal her money to going almost completely non verbal after another CT scan.

I am lost, can anyone advise? My mom is 78 years old. They claim at the other hospital to give her iv antibiotics from Sunday-Thursday.

Symptoms Notes:
speech limited to single words or phrases that may not make sense
having a limited understanding of what is being said to them
needing help with most everyday activities
eating less and having difficulties swallowing
bowel and bladder incontinence
problems sitting up (She does have a severe curved spine though)
having infections that keep coming back

 

[canary]

Hello @wolfskies

UTIs do horrible things to people with dementia and any infection can progress dementia. If shes had a lot of infections very close together this can make a huge difference.

She might also have delirium from the UTI. My MIL had mild dementia, then got a UTI with delirium which sent her dementia symptoms off the scale and she never really recovered from it, although many people do, in fact, improve from the delirium.

 

[northumbrian_k]

Hi @wolfskies and welcome to Dementia Support Forum our friendly and helpful community. I am sorry to hear about your mom. What seems important is to determine whether she was previously diagnosed with dementia and whether in fact the changes that you report are as a result of dementia or something else. In that way you can move on to thinking about her care needs and how they can be met.

Your implications that hospitals may be making 'claims' that are not true or telling 'lies' for some reason seem to be unhelpful at best.. Trying to unpick what has happened during her hospital stays is less important than getting a proper understanding of her condition and likely prognosis.

 

[sdmhred]

People without dementia can also get delirium as @canary describes.

Is she now at home? If so ask the GP to come round and assess. They will also have all the CT reports so might be able to shed some light on what may be some miscommunication somewhere.

 

[try again]

Sadly some hospitals are not as good as others

 

[wolfskies]

People without dementia can also get delirium as @canary describes.

Is she now at home? If so ask the GP to come round and assess. They will also have all the CT reports so might be able to shed some light on what may be some miscommunication somewhere.

No, sadly, she is still in the hospital. She went from like Monday sometime until very late Tuesday without sleeping. They said she seems calmer, and has gotten some sleep, but is still not herself. She literally went one minute from making several sentences and a few slurring sentences to almost completely non verbal in a few hours. She did have a UTI during the first stay. Now she is "retaining fluid" in her bladder and cannot relieve herself. She has pulled out her catheter several times while not really even knowing what she was doing.

The doc at the "better" hospital said that someone had prescribed 2 pills that should not be taken after 65. I will preface this with I came home on Monday to my living room in a huge mess and my mother "looking for something" but couldn't tell me what she was looking for. She was displaying hording behavior. When she started manically searching around and stealing things, I knew something was really wrong. Then she came out of the bathroom with a bottle of peroxide. Then when I took that away, she went for my toolbox. My sister wonders if she was trying to take her own life.

I don't know what to do. I am not accusing the other hospital or anything, though when my mom was still "coherentish" for the most part, I did ask her if they did anything to her and she said yes, but I don't know if I can believe her because of her previous behavior that evening. She seemed terrified of going to the hospital and kept begging us not to take her. That's the main reason why I wonder if they did something to her.

I am just pulling at strings here, trying to piece it together as best I can. I am just pretty lost.

 

[canary]

Im so sorry to hear about your mum
I had similar episodes when OH had half a dozen back-to-back UTIs (with a couple of bouts of sepsis thrown in for good measure) and his behaviour was off the scale. It was very scary. Mum also got delirium with a chest infection that landed her up in hospital.
I honestly wouldnt believe things that your mum tells you. Even in her "coherantish" moments she will still be confused and have false memories. Mum thought the nurses had been ill treating her, but Im sure they were not. She pointed out bruises to me, but they were due to drips, cannula and blood tests.

If you cant get answers from the doctors, contact PALS in the hospital