Rapid decline over three months.

[ginforall]

My mum was absolutely fine three months ago: active, chatty, playing with grandsons, going on walks and theatre trips. She had a UTI and developed some confusion. Since then there has been a rapid decline. She was admitted to hospital three weeks ago, she has acute confusion, often talks about people who are no longer with us who she says she has seen earlier in the day, balance issues, has fallen a few times, blurred vision and seems to have aged 20 years in 2 months. She has all the symptoms of advanced dementia from what I’ve read. She is 68. The doctors have done MRIs, ECGs, EEGs, a lumbar puncture, along with lots of blood tests etc. Other than noticing a swelling in both sides of her brain everything is coming back negative. Does anyone have any experience of such a rapid decline? It’s very difficult on our family.

I'm not an expert but can only tell you how it was with my mum who (as you may guess from the user name) has been diagnosed with Alzheimers for four years. She had symptoms very similar sounding to your mums after becoming unwell with pneumonia and was in hospital delirious and very unwell. The difference here is she subsequently had an MRI and it showed, very obviously, signs of dementia. Despite this though she did also improve an awful lot after discharge and with (live in) carers at home. Your difference here is that your mum has signs of inflammation but not (that they have said) signs of dementia, so I don't want to peddle false hope because I'm no where near an expert, but she doesn't sound to have dementia diagnosed from her scans which could be good?

Wishing you luck anyway, it sounds like an absolutely horrible situation, my mum had been obviously going down hill for some years (mid 70s on) and it was still incredibly distressing, to have this happen so suddenly must be very hard on all of you.

Sounds like Delirium? It can resolve but can take a while.

My MIL got what I described at the time as super-charged dementia. In a couple of weeks her personality just… went. A couple of years after diagnosis, she got a chest infection and was treated with IV antibiotics. Over the next couple of months she came back. Really back. My youngest child was able to have a relationship with her, and nice memories. She did end up dying with dementia - but had several good (i.e., dementia free) years between the initial diagnosis, and the actual dementia.

Last October my Aunt, with a UTI, had to be sectioned. She was so… well, far gone, that we couldn’t see any way back. But after antibiotics (which were difficult to get into her - IVs yanked out, and pills spat out), again, she went home without any sign of dementia.

Obviously, these are simply anecdotes - there will be many other less positive stories. But there can be hope. Good luck.

Thank you, the positive stories are definitely nice to read.

Her MRIs are not showing dementia, I just wasn’t sure where else to post as her symptoms are so similar to it. It’s the not knowing which is difficult and seeing her decline so quickly. I will definitely mention delirium again after the UTI to the doctors, it was what we first thought was going on when she started with the confusion. However they seemed to rule it out early on, but were focused on checking whether she had a TIA, which they have also ruled out.