I just what to understand what happened so we can all better accept what is going on.
Grandma was healthy with regular health check ups and visits from family weekly. Excellent memory and at 98 was living on her own still, very amazing!
She developed (within a few days) mobility trouble with a sore leg and went in for evaluation, all they found was a UTI. Since she could no longer walk she was sent to a Convalescent facility for physical therapy in hopes of going home soon after. From here we have seen her daily.
Barely able to do the PT she found herself mostly in bed. She began to hallucinate about things, says she was being called to a party and had to get up to go. Well she fell getting out of bed and fractured her hip which sent her back to the hospital. There they confirmed the fracture and also the same UTI as the facility neglected to re test for the previous UTI.
They sent her back to convalescent explaining the hallucinations is from the UTI and there is nothing else they can do for her. She is there for 2 days and on the 3rd day suddenly is in a comatose state barley conscious. The facility now unable to get her medication down her for the UTI so we plead to find out what happened and what is wrong, they tell us its the UTI but she changed overnight so she goes back to the Hospital again while each day she gets worse.
Finally she comes out of this semi consciousness state and regognizes family but continues downhill with the hallucinations. Now they want to send her back again saying that she has full blown dementia that was probably brought on by the UTI.
I can't find any information that would link UTI to dementia and in the course of a few weeks has gone from taking care of herself to bedridden waving her arms about and talking about things that are not happening. She will no longer eat either so they suspect this will be the end for her.
I thought dementia develops over time, not overnight. We all know she is lucky to have made 98 but does this exit sound normal?
I can only speak from my experience (MIL 97 years old with NO dementia), and her daughter (70 years WITH dementia) - so I think I know which is what.
My MIL had an episode where she went completely off the wall - hallucinations mainly. The ONLY reason turned out to be a UTI, which was diagnosed and treated very quickly. Within two days she was back to her normal intelligent and rational self.
From recent posts on this board, it seems there may be cases where treating a UTI is not as straightforward as it was in my experience, but I would seriously question any diagnosis of "full-blown" dementia that happened in the course of a few days.
I would say this is not a normal exit - at this age of course you expect something to happen - and the broken hip may have affected things too, but I would not (given my experiences) accept a sudden dementia diagnosis and all that that implies.
There is an element in the medical community, where old people are simply written off. As harsh as that sounds, it happened to my MIL when she had a stroke - we were told that she could no longer think or feel pain (and, on the basis of that, we should withdraw all sustenance). That was absolute rubbish - if spoken to gently she knew exactly what was going on, and she could definitely feel pain.
You are in a difficult position - your Grandma may well be dying, from whatever causes. But in my opinion there is merit in making sure she is not being misdiagnosed/treated so that there is an element of dignity and respect (from the medical profession I mean) in how she is treated.
yes, UTI's in one so elderly can, quite literally, kill them.
At 98, she's done so well to get so far, but as you have experienced, the downfall is rapid. At 98 her body simply can't bounce back from all the trauma. At 98, shock, illness, a high fever can send them 'over the edge'.
Horrible, yes. Fixable? Quite likely no. Sad but true.
You are right in that Dementia develops over a period of time, however, there are some dementia's 'out there' that happen very VERY quickly. UTI's are renowned for it in those who already have dementia (no matter what level).
I suspect your Grandma has dementia anyway, before all this, but because she's seen so often, it's not picked up (as was the case in my family), and at 98, SHE'S ALLOWED TO ... Old Age Dementia is REAL and understandable. Their poor brain has just run out of room to remember anything else and usually at that advanced age, nobody REALLY notices because your not asking her day to day stuff or if you are, she's easily bluffing the answers.
I could be wrong, but I've seen this tooooo many times for it not to be a possibility.
If it is indeed Grandma's time to go, let her go with lots of love and hugs and holding hands. No, this exit isn't 'typical' but it's not unusual.
My 98.9 year old mother has old age dementia. It was very hard for anyone to diagnose or believe, because for the most part she still made sense in what she said, except for hallucinations such as seeing a long gone cousin on the street, and extreme forgetfulness so that she could not go for a walk and find her way back to her house.
She aso fell and broke a hip and has been in a nursing home ever since, because she was unable to learn to walk again (age 96.9, exactly 2 years ago).. and now she is dying of heart failure, inabilitry to digest food, and a small cancer in a lung. She is not diagnosed with Alzheimer but with old age or 'senile dementia" ... it did come on slowly, but many people did not notice. I did, because I lived with her. She would mix up the days and the seasons. After Halloween she thought summer was coming. Many people just laughed and said 'well, she IS 90something! What do you expect?"
Whatver the cause, your grandma is at the end of her long life, and needs a lot of love, hugs, reassurances (if she believes in the afterlife, tell her that her husband, mother, etc are all waiting for her on the other side, this thought helps my Mom considerably) and a peaceful end. It is true that a bad UTI can mix up a person's thinking, but that alone does not cause Alzheimer's.
I pray all will go well for her and she has a peaceful end.
hi i have worked with dementia for a long time and you are correct it does not come on over night, uti can show the same symptoms as dementia like you describe and with treatment these should improve her condition. i have also found that a break like you describe in the elderly can cause their condition to go down hill very quickly its the shock to the body, it sounds likr your gran needs some tlc and care from these people. i wish you luck the system is crap and they palm people off all the time just put your foot down and take no crap.
What happened to my Grandma? 
Linear Mode
