My brother mentioned that Mother Dear asked for me by name when I was away. I hadn't seen her in almost a week. I wonder if she noticed I hadn't been around or if it was just something that crossed her mind like when she says she needs to find her parents.
I guess she was good last Friday but not so good on Sunday when my brother visited. When I saw her on Wednesday, she still wasn't good and the activities director said she hadn't been very interactive all day. She suggested that I ask the medical staff if she had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) which are common in assisted living centers.
Sure enough, the nurse reported that they had tested her on Monday, it came back positive, and that she was on antibiotics. I'm sure the UTI had her down on Sunday for my brother's visit and the meds for my visit on Wednesday.
The activities director offered good advice. UTIs are common and certainly make the dementia worse in most individuals. If she's prone to UTIs having a regular glass of cranberry juice with lunch isn't a bad idea. I know of some residents that used to get cranberry supplements in their diets to help prevent UTIs.
My mom used to get UTIs all the time and it definitely made her overall state (both physically and mentally) worse. My friend works in a home and said that UTIs can also cause inbalance & falls somehow!
Daddy had constant UTIs a few years ago. He had a prostate procedure, then started taking cranberry pills, two a day, and no more UTIs.
UNTIL, of course, he went into assisted living, then to the adult psych unit, then onto the medical floor at the hospital, during which his cranberry pills were eliminated somehow. Result? UTI. Confusion, agitation in the extreme.
No one believes that UTIs can increase confusion in the elderly until they actually see it. Pretty amazing. I hope your mom's on the mend soon.