What keeps happening to my gentle mum?? Mum used to such a quiet person... a real lady, but, she keeps on getting infections, chest and urine and its like she becomes a different person and is so unmanageable, abusive and aggressive. Does anyone know why people with dementia get so many infections that completely knock them off their feet and make the dementia increase? Thanks for any response.
We had a long period of time where it seemed like my Mil (Mum in law) never had more than a week or two clear of UTI's, and the impact on her behaviour (not the best anyay) was awful. The bacteria causing the repeted infections was identified as e coli - apparently very common in the gut of older people, and the reason why it kept flaring up in Mil was simply down to poor toilet hygeine - she wasn't washing her hands properly after using the loo
However, she has now been free of UTI's for several months, and I think its down to two things. One, she is now on a maintenence low dose of antibiotics, taken every day, and two, we now spend a small fortune on anti bacterial hand gels, have them dotted all over the house, in the car, in my bags and in her handbag, and we are fanatical about making her use it. Every time she goes to the loo, every time before she eats, every time she comes through the door from day care or wherever else she may have been. Initially, she would often complain about being asked to use the gel, but eventually, she just accepted it.
I don't know how much this has had an impact, but several months ago we also made the difficult decision to stop Mil doing anything in the kitchen - aside from her issues with hand washing, she has also taken to wiping her nose on any available cloth (including tea towels - yuck) , and had become completely unsafe with any of the kitchen aplliances. So, she also has no contact with food prep, or the area where its done, at all.
It might be worth speaking to your Mum's GP about the long term use of a low anti biotic, and also worth finding out if its the same bacteria causing the repeated infections and if using the hand gel might also help
Good luck with finding a solution - it is horrendous to see what an infection can do to our loved one xxxx