Dehydration or the start of dementia? So quick, so weird

[BreatheAndFocus]

Hi,
We’re having problems with DM (76yrs). She’s been absolutely until recently - energetic (walking for 1hr most days), always busy, chatty - but in the last two or three months there’s been a drastic change. She’s lost a lot of weight (due to not eating properly, we believe), is forgetful and sometimes disinterested in things. She can’t seem to organise tasks and got lost when driving (not driving now due to our concerns).She sits in front of the TV most of the day from what we can gather.

Recently, I stayed with her for a few days (she lives alone). One thing I noticed was that she wasn’t urinating all day (approx 12hrs). During this time she had two or three mugs of tea but didn’t pee. Isn’t that unusual? Does it mean she’s dehydrated? If so, could this prolonged dehydration be causing the forgetfulness and out of character behaviour?

She’s deteriorated physically too, apart from the weight loss. In the Summer she’d happily walk 5 miles with a stop for a packed lunch, but now she was almost shuffling and looked frail and feeble. But then, if she’s not eating, wouldn’t that be a possible cause?

At the beginning of Oct she was fine, now she’s struggling and so different 😞 Coincidently (or not), a volunteering thing she was doing ended around that time. Could that be connected? She used to have to get up to get ready and also prepared food for others and worked to a timetable. Now she lies in late and spends the day doing very little. Could she be depressed and missing the social interaction? But surely that wouldn’t make her confused?

Sorry to ramble on. It’s the speed of things that’s shocking. We’ve arranged a doctor visit for basic checks in the New Year, but I just wanted to ask if this sounds like dementia or if it’s ‘just’ a physical and mental deterioration due to lack of food and drink that can be reversed?

Any thoughts or comments welcome. I’m really worried. I spent most of Christmas looking at care options but I just wish I knew what’s causing this so I could help and could anticipate the future a bit.

I was also going to suggest jelly drops. They're really good.

Good luck op

See how she gets on with the antibiotics, if no change, you could ask for a CT scan (explaining about her rapid cognitive decline).

GP will probably want to do a few other tests first, such as bloods, a mini mental screen and possibly an ECG, as there are lots of things which present as dementia, when in fact it could be something as 'fixable' like a B12 deficiency or anaemia. But if they all come back as okay, then ask about a CT.

There are other snacks you can use to get fluids into her, too:

Jelly
Ice lollies
Fruit (fresh or tinned)
Cucumber
Smoothies with water

If she's not remembering to fetch it herself then put it out on a plate or tray for her.

Great tip is to put food on blue china...its been shown to encourage elderly people with dementia to eat more. How? Because the blue provides a great contrast to the food and the colour also makes the food more appealing.