She's dying isn't she?

Coming in by ambulance does NOT get you seen quicker
In fact you may have to wait even longer as ambulance crew has to wait with patient until they can handover and then be triage in a&e.
The OPs mother would have been triage d when she was in hospital and a priority code given with nurses monitoring routinely and escalating concerns

Can you advocate for your mum and push them to run some tests, and ask if they can test for sepsis.

Who is she going to ask?

Her mum is at home.

Id be inclined to call an ambulance it might hasten her route into potentially being admitted, especially if theres a risk of sepsis

My dad was recently admitted to hospital with sepsis. He has a hernia which has pushed all his bladder etc plumbing out of place and it turned into a UTI. He went to the doctor that week who gave him diazepam to relax the muscles. He was confused but they put that down to the diazepam and he gradually stopped taking it. Later that week he was admitted to hospital with the sepsis and was in itu for about a week, being pumped with hardcore iv antibiotics. I think the hernia pushing everything out of its usual place meant he was retaining wee, which must have then became infectious. He had a catheter put in and they were doing regular cultures to identify the bug. They changed the antibiotics he was on as the ones they used initially weren't working

He was very confused for the first few days, due to the UTI and combination of drugs. He also hadn't been eating prior to being admitted as of course, everything was uncomfortable due to the hernia

Hes back home but with another infection and the catheter is tricky as his plumbing is all out of place, hes awaiting an op for his hernia - hopefully the fact he was in ITU might make his case for a slot a bit more urgent, its a bit of a vicious cycle as the hernia is causing all these problems, but hes probably not well enough for an op due to the infections

Can you advocate for your mum and push them to run some tests, and ask if they can test for sepsis. If shes admitted due to needing Iv antibiotics hopefully they can give her some fluids, by iv if needed as shes probably lost a lot of strength due to not being able to eat

If she is just given tablets and sent home, could you get her some complan or similar - she can then sip these and have them in small doses to make it easier for her to stomach, but will mean shes getting some nutrients into her

Its so scary when a parent is ill, have you got someone who can support you?

Have a look online to see if your area has an intensive home support service.

Your mum sounds like mine at the moment although mine is much older. She was so confused yesterday that she apparently told her GP she was fine. She wasn't, thankfully I managed to get through and they put her on a at home face to face. The Dr that can was fab, she listened and gave her some antibiotics, and some other stuff to get her through as she's under investigation for cancer. My mum hasn't eaten a full meal since mid August

As hard as it is, shift your focus on to something positive. Uti's do strange things townspeople but most respond well and quickly to treatment.

1 day after starting a 3 day course my mum is taking normally again already.

It's delirium. Awful.

Unlike dementia it can (often, not always, and after varying lengths of time) be (fully) reversible back to a normal state of mind.

UTI, dehydration with high sodium / low potassium, lack of sleep these are all common triggers for delirium.

Try calling 111 and report it..and see if you can get them to refer her back to A and E or give you any advice on how to help her at home. it might speed things up and in any case it will put it on the record how long its been going on.

Yes! I thought my mum had severe dementia literally overnight!

I could not believe the change in her or the change back when she was better.

Can you at least help the hiatus hernia pain by giving her some bicarb of soda? I have tremendous pain from mine (waiting for an op) but bicarb really helps (and shouldn't make anything else any worse).

Is there another hospital she could go to that might be quicker? I have 2 hospitals nearby both about half an hour away in opposite directions and 1 always has far shorter waiting times in A&E than the other.

Absolutely, UTIs can give people almost dementia type symptoms. It can be quite scary.

I've had some bloody horrible UTIs. Painful but not dying, and it does cause incontinence like what your mum had.
With me it has spread to a kidney infection when left untreated, so if she cannot take the antibiotics, then they should be able to administer it via an IV drip. It's quickly curable even though it makes you feel rotten and run down.
She just needs to have some medication to clear it up before it gets worse.

Sorry to hear this. I hope she has a good nights sleep. Try sips of water every few minutes. If you can get some antibiotics prescribed over the phone. And give her coodamol instead of paracetamol (although don’t double up as it has paracetamol in it)

I am so sorry. Can you get the GP to come round? Some still will (I was surprised when a friend told me her dad's GP came round for him, in a situation that sounds a bit like yours).
It is awful that old, very ill people are sitting for the best part of two days in AE. There was a time when I wouldn't have believed anyone who said they were kept waiting even a day, without being offered a bed.

A&E is awful but she needs to go back, it’s the way into being admitted.

My mum had a UTI, it completely changes the person, she was talking gibberish, I thought she was dying. UTI got cleared up and she was back to normal.

Good luck.

Demand?
From whom?
The OP's mother is at home, having discharged herself from hospital.

She is not dying, but if you don't advocate for her, she might. Demand culturing and review of antibiotics.

If you have the wherewithal, make a complaint to the hospital.

Call 111. Oh it's the fkng weekend now so surgery would be shut.

I'm not a medic but see if she can stay hydrated, even though she's throwing up

@McSteamyorMcdreamy

OP my mum had these symptoms and was in heart failure. Has she had her heart checked out? It’s awful to be fobbed off when you can see there’s something seriously wrong. I don’t want to scare you but I wish we’d thought of her heart when they were being on about hernias and reflux

I know you must be terrified girl. No advice but keep going hour by hour. What does she need right now, and what will she need next?

Tomorrow you will go back to a&e? Ime its best to go at 6am xx

If she has been awake for 48 hours straight and throwing up most of that time, it’s going to make her look washed out, drained and tired. But it’s not going to kill her.
The best thing you can do is take her back to hospital tomorrow.

I hope she gets well soon 🙏 UTI can take a while to clear up and maybe she's feeling sick due to the side effects of the meds...she's got a few things going on but it's treatable. Could you possibly take her to a different hospital tmro? It's not easy staying on a chair with all that discomfort... hopefully she gets a good rest tonight. Try not to think of the worst and get some rest yourself.

This is awful
Would they have admitted her eventually? Sadly, if she had an untreated infection, she will get sepsis and end up back there anyway.

She probably feels so wretched between the UTI and not being able to keep anything down, plus no sleep for 2 or 3 nights, she's giving up. She doesn't need to give up though, all of that is treatable.
She's been sat in a chair in a&e because while it's awful that she can't keep anything down, it's not an emergency situation. She probably keeps getting to almost the top of the list to be seen but then another ambulance arrives kind of situation. Dreadful but that's the state of the NHS in England from what I can gather.
If you can, get her a GP appointment to get her admitted straight onto a ward for treatment around the hiatus hernia, and to get her on a drip for fluids and nutrition. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon, but not if she can't keep them down.