Rapid deterioration

[MyMumhasDementia]

I was with my mum in the care home Thursday and she was ok. It was a ‘good’ visit. She chatted with me and another resident and it was very pleasant.
Friday morning she fell - her 8th fall In Month. She was assessed and obs taken. A UTI was found and antibiotics commenced.

She spent the day as usual, eating and drinking fine, chatting to everyone and being the social butterfly that she is.

Early evening. She vomited and they did her obs. Her bp was low and heart rate high. A paramedic was called and she was taken to hospital. I joined her and spent the night in A&E with there. She was totally incoherent and seemed to have forgotten how to walk.

After 20 hours she was taken to a ward. My brother was with her and said he had to spoon feed some soup to her.

She settled and they noted she was enjoying watching what was going on and was eating and drinking well. They discharged her yesterday afternoon back to the care home.

I was rung to say she was back and they’d made her her favourite tea, however she seemed to not know what to do with it.

She has needed prompting to eat and drink for a while but has always understood that it was her food however she does try and give it away.

This time she doesn’t seem to realise it’s food for her.

Any help or suggestions welcome x x

Perseverance, OP, more likely to be temporary in the circumstances of UTI and antibiotics and frequent change of location.
My DM went through a phase almost eight years before she died of giving her food to others. Unfortunately my DF didn’t realise this was her dementia talking, so he ate her food and she went to 6 stones. But it was a phase.
There was also a phase where she put food in her ear for a few days instead of her mouth.
Tempting bite size treats and cut up cake.
and just loving care from those working to keep her settled is all I can suggest. But an sure her team will be giving her encouragement to keep using her own knife and fork throughoT
Sounds like a super care home by the way.

UTI’s hit the elderly like a train and they’re much, much harder to treat. Unfortunately they tend to have much more pronounced symptoms like delirium and fevers. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon.

shes suffered with utis for years and ended up in hospital so many times before she went in the care home. However although she was delirious, she was able to form words and sentences but this time she was just mumbling. Totally incoherent.

The staff at the care home are amazing. It’s only 12 residents so the care they get is just wonderful. They have all worked there for many years and the atmosphere is just like walking into a warm hug from family.

@MyMumhasDementia Lovely to hear you and DB have DM safely installed in a home from home environment. We all strive for that but it's so hard to find.
If your DM has dipped a little bit, and sadly it is inevitable, then at least she's surrounded by people who know her quirks and will provide consistency.
Hopefully the drugs are working better now.
The way we could spot our DM's decline was by her attitude to eating and her lessening amounts of language. You really want DM to retain the knowledge to use a fork and spoon as long as possible.

Mum has a memory clinic appointment at the care home this week.
The staff have said I’m welcome to go and be with her, which is absolutely the right thing to do however what can I expect to happen other than ‘who’s the prime minister, what day/date is it,’ that sort of question.

Will we be told on the day that they believe she has dementia?

when the care home spoke to me about Dol’s, I spoke to a social worker who suggested an independent advocate for mum, as mum had said she wanted to go home all the time. She’s since stopped mentioning her beautiful home, which is actually going on the market next week.

She’s deteriorated so much in a few short weeks it’s scary, particularly the lack of ability to eat.

Im just so sad but want to do the right thing and make life as comfortable as possible for her.
X

If it’s memory clinic I would expect a series of games. For someone with a higher level of cognition than your mum it was things like two minutes to say as many words as you can beginning with p, “I'll give you a word and I want you to give me a word that has no connection with it”, and lots of those shape puzzles you get in IQ tests. And it was spread over three sessions.