My wife has had dementia for 3 years now, which has varied in its behaviour from periods of calm when she is able to respond briefly in conversation, to periods of extreme agitation, shouting or screaming, with head tilted to one side, jaw dropped and eyes staring. I keep a daily diary and am able to look back to remind me of how things were, often thinking that today has been the worst ever, only to find that it had happened before, several times before.
A new influence on her behaviour has taken place in the last few months, a disposition to UTIs (Uterine Transmitted Infections), which are not always accompanied by high temperature, but often flushes the face and forehead. When a UTI is present, her behaviour is always much worse, she is more easily aggravated by small things, like noise, or close movements causing her to shout even more, but her speech becomes affected too. She also goes off her food and drink.
I dealt with this when I was caring for her at home by calling in a GP, who would invariably prescribe antibiotics, but 3 weeks ago she had to go into a care home (residential) as I could no longer cope.
Does anyone else have any experience of dementia and UTIs? Any UTI by its nature takes a while to get seen to, then to get a test and a result, before any antibiotics are likely to be prescribed, meaning that several days can go by before any remedy can be applied.
I don't think that Residential Homes have sufficient experience to recognise when a UTI may be present in someone whose behaviour is already difficult to understand.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how this problem can be best addressed?
A new influence on her behaviour has taken place in the last few months, a disposition to UTIs (Uterine Transmitted Infections), which are not always accompanied by high temperature, but often flushes the face and forehead. When a UTI is present, her behaviour is always much worse, she is more easily aggravated by small things, like noise, or close movements causing her to shout even more, but her speech becomes affected too. She also goes off her food and drink.
I dealt with this when I was caring for her at home by calling in a GP, who would invariably prescribe antibiotics, but 3 weeks ago she had to go into a care home (residential) as I could no longer cope.
Does anyone else have any experience of dementia and UTIs? Any UTI by its nature takes a while to get seen to, then to get a test and a result, before any antibiotics are likely to be prescribed, meaning that several days can go by before any remedy can be applied.
I don't think that Residential Homes have sufficient experience to recognise when a UTI may be present in someone whose behaviour is already difficult to understand.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how this problem can be best addressed?