Delerium?

[Snowsquonk]

My usually independent, active and cognitively-sound Mum has been in hospital for a week now following the onset of what she (and her GP) thought was "just" a chest infection. Turns out she has heart failure (atrial fibrillation) a pulmonary embolism, a clot in her heart and a chest infection. Its been a challenging week, initially better then two days when we were warned she was sick enough to die. Not helped by no visitors until the hospital changed policy on Thursday. Saw her Thursday and she was so much better, off oxygen, tired but able to chat normally and asking after family, what was happening in politics etc.
Thursday night I got two voicemails from her clearly in distress. Checked with the ward and was told she had been a bit confused overnight. Couldn't visit Friday because of the weather. Saw her yesterday and she's not right, there were a few times when she said very out of character things. Nursed were going to check for uti, she's also constipated. Last night, more distressed phone calls and messages. The ward told me she's been shouting and banging her arm against the bed rails so they moved her to a bay for 2:1 nursing care. I spoke to her and she knew who I was but was not making much other sense and kept saying she'd had nothing to eat or drink. The nurse said she had a drink with her. Is this the onset of delerium and if so, is there anything I can do which will help? I am finding the out of character behaviour really upsetting and I am the only visitor allowed so I can't share that with my siblings.

It may well be delirium brought on by the hospital stay. I had a similar experience with my DM a few years ago when she was on a horrible ward in the basement. Pre-covid, so visitors allowed. She was horrible to me, completely out of character. I also overheard the family of the lady in the next bed commenting to the staff about her behaviour being out of character. Following this, I researched the subject and found out that this is quite common, especially with elderly patients. The good news is that she was moved to a better ward and became her old self again.

I hope you get a good outcome, you have my sympathy

I’ve found that elderly people can deteriorate quite rapidly when ill, and never quite get back to their usual self.
Also, they can hide some dementia symptoms at home in their known environment, but it’s more noticeable when out of their environment.
It may be infection or being away from home causing it, or it may be the start of dementia.

Honestly, this is happening a lot with the no visiting thing. People need human contact, they need physical touch. If they say she's got a drink, ask how much she has drank today, it's not enough for them to say she's got a drink without actually checking how much she's actually having, if she's not in a good place then food and drink intake needs to be encouraged and monitored.

On a positive, in the cases I've seen, people do tend to improve quite quickly once they're able to get home and back to family. I appreciate that's not much help when she still needs treatment, but it's something to aim towards.

Do you know when you can see her again? When you do, or when you call, specifically ask how much she's drinking, how often she's weeing. Ask what she's eating and what they're doing to manage the constipation.

I hope you get some better news soon.

We had this with father in law. He had a uti and it got much better when that was treated but it does really make you worry about dementia. But fingers crossed it gets sorted out quickly as it's very distressing.

Sorry, I should have said the cases I've seen are where there is no medical cause like a UTI, it was caused by the lack of care.

When you ask about the fluid intake, if they say she has capacity and they can't force her, remind them there's a difference between forcing someone and encouraging them.

Thank you all. I am able to visit every day for one hour, it has to be the same named person so its just me because I am local.

I am trying to check how much she's eating and drinking. Thursday she was drinking water and had a hot chocolate while I was with her, and she had a couple of snacks. Yesterday...a job to persuade her to sip on her water so I will check with staff again. It is super frustrating that I am not able to go in at other times.

My fil had this. It came on really quickly in hospital but I had a hard job convincing staff in the hospital that this wasn’t how he was normally at all. I knew it wasn’t dementia.
It turned out that he wasn’t drinking enough.
The hospital really were no help. My fil was an active man who suddenly wasn’t allowed to move from beside his bed. There were no windows to connect with reality and nothing to do all day. Really awful for elderly people.
He was okay when he got home. We used to get him to fill large jug of water each morning , and to make sure he drank it all.
Sorry you’re going through this OP.

If she’s not eating, can you go in at mealtimes to help her ?
And can you take in food that she will eat, like soup in a flask ?

@GeneLovesJezebel

If she’s not eating, can you go in at mealtimes to help her ? And can you take in food that she will eat, like soup in a flask ?

No. Visiting is highly restricted - I can go in from 2-3pm and that is it. I have taken food, yesterday she refused it. I'll keep trying.

My mother had this every time she went into hospital without fail over the years. We found the anti sickness medication was a dead cert to trigger it in her for some reason.