UTI in aging parent???

[Yellowcoke]

My mother is in her early 70s. Over the past 2 to 3 years I have a lot of observations about her that leads me to suspect a behavioural dementia like FTD. Apparantly that's rarer and harder to diagnosis. There's so much happening with her with personality and behaviours.

Aside from this, before the Christmas she had a UTI. She recognised herself that something wasn't right and she went to the doctor. It was a UTI. Thinking back in the weeks leading up to that, she wasn't behaving very well - she was obsessed with cleaning and some OCD but also poor sequencing of tasks and chores. I remember another morning where she launched a verbal attack on me that made no sense whatsoever. I was loading the dishwasher and it was as full as it was going to get with dishes even down by the sides and on top of others. I was going to start it but then my mother raged at me because she wanted to get more into it. It reaction didn't make any sense. She was nasty.

She wasnt feeling well in April and she told me but then she refused to go to the doctor thinking it will get better on its own. Thinking back to that week she had similar ocd-cleaning spells and within 2 days she launched a verbal attack at me and again it made no sense. Eventually she went to the doctor but it took all week encouraging.

Here we are again in May. She's behaving similar again - ocd- cleaning attacks on the home with some tones of anger like throwing wet rags around in anger and she launched another verbal attack on me that made no sense.
Now I am thinking of she has a UTI. If it didn't clear from April or whatever.

She won't use the test strips that I have. It's impossible to deal with this and get this sorted. I looked into half pans collection pots for the toilet but she would likely only remove it in a fit of cleaning. She won't go to the doctor.

Is it just a case of ignoring this until a crisis happens. Til she's dead with sepsis?

Tricky one. Any chance you could persuade the GP to call her in for a 'routine checkup'?

If it's been hanging around since April it probably won't shift without heavy duty antibiotics, but in the absence of a cooperative GP or other options it might be worth trying D-mannose (if you could get her to take it somehow).

Thank you. I have no idea what to do. Her behaviour is unreal. She has been moving furniture about all week with no clear aim and none of it makes sense. She dragged a wardrobe from a spare bedroom into another spare bedroom. Then another day at night I came home from work to find that it was in the sitting room. Then another morning after breakfast she was packing up the contents of a kitchen cupboard and cleaning everything out. Then this morning she dragged the wardrobe out from the sitting room and back up the hall. Then she dragged more furniture around the house. I came home from work to find she's been dragging other furniture around the house too. None of it makes sense. Her moods and explosions are unreal.

The practice nurse was phoning all for weeks trying to book her in for a year's check up on the blood pressure monitor and probably bloods. She had an appointment. She cancelled it. She has no intention of going back and she's been ignoring her phone since then.

If I was to chat to a gp in the local surgery she's just going to ignore her phone.

I suggested dmannose before. She won't do it.

I also suggested the possibilty of sepsis for ignoring infections and she won't listen to me.

She has no comprehension. My nerves are shot.

Is it just a case now of waiting to see how long it will take before sepsis takes over and kills her?

Can you not explain what’s going on and get the GP to do a home visit? If she has no comprehension you could call adult social services and see if they can come and assess her.

I don't fancy her chances of getting a home visit from her GP but if the practice nurse is so keen to have her blood pressure checked, perhaps that is something which could be arranged at home and her general state reported back to the GP?

I could chat to the GP and see if we can come up with a plan maybe. I have a condition that sometimes flares up.

What I could do is trick my mother and say GP is calling to me because I am very sore and then while there, check on my mother. Or another way to do it is to make a GP appointment for myself and pretend I am very bad and ask my mother to come with me because I am very sore.

Those are two options but I will have to act fast. By tomorrow morning and booking for Monday morning. I do t live in the UK where you have terrible GP waiting times.

Sorry you're going through this Op.
I hope you can get a correct diagnosis soon.

A lot of what's happening, if a professional came into the home - you wouldn't see it. It's me that's witnessing all of this. She's been moving stuff left, right and centre all week long and none of it makes sense.

Kidney infections can affect behaviour in the elderly.

It's so scary. She's gone to bed now.

There's a key on the door to the spare room and I don't know if I should lock it and hide the key to prevent another morning of OCD cleaning attacks. Or if that will cause more anxiety in the morning if the room is locked and the key is gone. Or will I leave it and see what happens after breakfast. She is so so so odd.

I do think it is UTI and there's probably something deeper going on too like a dementia too but I think maybe there's a UTI.

I had a look in the spare room just to see what was happening and I was shocked. I didn't critizise her work though and she exploded in rage at me and the ranting she made, made no sense. I walked away but what gives her the right to say nasty things like that. I could do the same and remind her that a lot of people are age are in nursing homes or dead. But I didn't and I held back and walked away. She was so utterly cruel and mean.

As in UTI?

How do I organise a doctor's appointment with her. She has no awareness of her behaviour. Will I phone the GP practice and tell them that her behaviour is off the wall and inform them that she's been ignoring the nurse and she will likely ignore her phone too.

UTIs do cause the type of symptoms that you describe. Definitely call the GP and get her seen.

Ok I will phone the hospital tomorrow and see if I can get an appointment and I will see if I can trick my mother to come with me.

If she's lost capacity - and it does sound as if she may well have done - might there be some sort of crisis team that could visit you?

Tricky without knowing your local health service, but I think you do need to speak to the doctor hospital ASAP and emphasise that she is having some sort of mental health/cognitive crisis, not behaving rationally, and is a risk to herself (ignoring a probable untreated infection and dragging large furnture about) and possibly to others (rage explosions).

They usually keep getting them if they don't drink enough, try to encourage her to say hydrated too. X

I have an underlying condition and I need to keep fluids up. I am always buying bottled water and I encourage her to do the same and she is drinking fluids.

She has a UTI back in April. So I doubt that was cleared.

Get her salt levels checked. This can cause all sorts of confusion and is common with UTIs and with older people. My dad had low salt and went doolally!

Turn your observations into a diary. Medics (and SWs) are much more inclined to believe a diary - somehow having dates attached turns it from “family says” into “evidence”.

UTI's in the elderly are quite common mainly due to low amount of fluids poor hygiene sometimes and I have found sometimes not urinating when they really need to. its a frightening thing as they see all sorts, my fil used to see monkeys and once he was yelling at something turned out he could see someone painting his living room but badly!