Mom, 91, lives in AL - back from hospital. Was dehydrated, low potassium, and UTI - was hallucinating. On antibiotics and released. Still seems out of it on certain topics. Is this normal from what she has been through? (has colostmy, macular degeneration, arthritis in back and knees. Mostly uses a wheelchair.)
Thanks.
When anyone's electrolytes get unbalanced it's like their electric lights go off in their brains and everything gets messed up. One lady I knew had a great sense of humor. She told me that her problem was that her electrict lights went out and did not come backon until she got into the hospital. I'm not sure if she really grasped the biology of that, but she had the illustration down pat.
Try to get her to use her words to describe how she is really feeling - now - and help her think through whether descriptions she is hearing from others is actually how she feels about certain aspects. Try this every day, make notes, and ask about specific ways she is perceiving herself and her condition. This helped me a lot with my mother, then I was able to describe to medical personnel what she had told me. This helped all of us. Lots. Another thing I try to do is to have her make decisions about what she wants and when, go or stay, in or out, etc. then make it happen just how she has decided. So often she will express her wishes and someone will talk her out of it, or just say "no" not now or not this or that way. Makes them feel powerless, after spending their life making their own plans and being able to carry them out and run their life. Some of the big issues have to be the way they are, but lots of the detail can be easily planned out by honoring your mother's own decisions. This is very satisfying. I know.
There are so many things that are just being uncovered about the harm some meds (including anibiotics) can cause. The antibiotics could even be confusing her. My mother is allergic to Cipro. Reactions can cause confusion. It made her completely out of it.
I had a heat attack and I told them I couldn't take high blood pressure meds. Well they didn't listen and I didn't know what they were giving me. My blood pressure drop into the 30s. My kidneys didn't work anymore. Gee I wonder why I could of died and my family wouldn't have known what I died of. So they called in a Dr. for the kidneys and he took me off of all blood pressure medication. You would of thought they would have known that.
Doctors can kill you. What them!
It is all about money. My doctor lives in a $500,000 house and who know what he drives, so he needs the money to pay for it.
I am taking care of my husband who has Alzheimer's. He is in the last stages.