CRP levels in elderly mum

[harverina]

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone can help me understand my mums blood results better.

A very long story that I will try to condense.

My Mum is in hospital - she has vascular dementia and is on an elderly mental health / dementia ward. She is 75.

She was due for discharge today but it has been delayed (so many times but that’s another story)

She has had a chest infection and is on her third course of antibiotics. She has had a chests x-Ray which showed infection.

Her CRP levels on Friday were 83. Earlier in the week they had been at 96.

Neutrophil and white cell count are within normal parameters.

The ward are repeating bloods today to see what the levels are at now.

Mum also has a small tumour on her lung - it has been there since 2015 - she did receive treatment that was viewed as being a success and a decision was made that no further treatment was necessary. Subsequent x-rays have concluded “no change” to this.

She also has advanced heart failure, COPD and recently fractured her hip. She had surgery on her hip around 12 weeks ago. She also caught Covid in January in hospital.

Is it just a case of finding the right antibiotic to treat the chest infection? Looking online it seems that a CRP in the 80’s and 90’s is very high.

We are just desperate for her to be discharged - for the usual reasons and for so many more reasons that I don’t need to go in to here.

Ah I knew there would something I forgot!

Her food and fluid intake has been shocking. The last 3 days she’s averaged fluid of 1600mls so that’s not too bad but other days have been worse.

Bumping

CRP is a very non-specific marker of inflammation. It’s often raised because of infection, but may be raised due to other things so starting/finishing antibiotics isn’t usually decided purely on the crp. It is still high, but if it’s going the right way it may be possible to just monitor it if she’s well, but if she has signs of infection or another treatable cause then that should probably be treated. There are other, more specific markers of bacterial infection that they may have done too. You’d be better speaking to the team looking after your mum rather than taking advice on here really because her history sounds quite complicated. They’ll be much better able to explain the decision making and expectations in terms of prognosis etc than anyone here can.

Fluid requirement is determined by lots of things, including her weight, kidney function and severity of the heart failure. Less than 1600ml may be completely adequate depending on lots of things. Hope things turn out well.

Thank you.

Her bloods today have shown CPR levels at 85. They were 83 on Friday. Neutrophil and white cell count normal. Kidney function also normal (for mum) today. No signs of clinical dehydration.

Rather than advice on here we are just looking for info - not always easy to come by when speaking to her clinical team - communication with the ward has been awful. We had a nurse tell us last night that the Dr saw her and said she wasn’t fit for discharge and she told us they wanted to check her CRP levels, however when we asked what that meant the nurse said she didn’t know!

They’ve come to us today and asked us if we would be happy with discharge on Wednesday with the CRP levels at this level. In all honesty I feel they should offer us a view rather than ask us! We don’t have a medical background at all.

In terms of how mum is - she is better than she was. Eating and drinking a little more. Still tired. Cough isn’t as bad. Is still very loose.