Can sepsis lead to early dementia/cognitive issues?

Yes, sepsis and any kind of infection can cause cognitive issues in the elderly. Some folks can bounce back, some bounce back part of the way, some not at all. It just varies.

Has your mom received treatment for the UTI in SNF?

The UTI, potential sepsis, hospitalization, and rehab probably all work together to throw your mother totally off mentally. Either one of these things can have a profound effect on an elder's behavior and thinking. Together they probably have a dramatic effect. I hope that she returns to her old self as she improves.

yes, & ty. she was both in the hosp (on iv) and I believe again in the snf. bc she was found to have ANOTHER one.. and was then since treated. she's very combative & defensive w me... I mentioned this AM that I wanted her to be evaluated by a Nuero ~ she said she would not go.. meanwhile. she's driving ME INSANE~ (constantly calling me hysterical for one reason or another).. i'm slowly unraveling.. i'm emailing the facility's SW to get input

should I begin trying to get her evaluated for dementia?

TY Jessie.. thing is I don't think she's improving.. she's going downhill& with the demands of the PT in order to go home, its just exasperating everything~ thank u all for listening! :(

TMe, would I be right in thinking that your mother and her doctor between them have been managing her health and been somewhat economical with you when it comes to information?

I'd be doing my nut, too, if it were my mother and I couldn't get straight answers out of people. But hold your horses a minute - what input are you hoping for from the SW? What direction are you heading in with this?

there is really no doctor, besides the house Dr. and I am never told anything.. I'd really like to get her evaluated somehow to see if the possible sepsis has affected her cognitively. she's always been difficult to deal with (personality disorders) but she is now becoming more forgetful & delusional.. (she calls me & my adult daughter incoherent).. this is something I've never seen from her before~

It may be that the UTI is not totally cleared. UTIs can make elderly people act almost psychotic. My mother has one that just started improving yesterday. The last week of my life has not been good, because she gets psychotic and very ill when she has a UTI. How long has your mother been in rehab? I wondered also why you thought she was in sepsis. Someone who is in sepsis has specific, life threatening symptoms and can take months to recover completely.

With nothing but little bits and pieces of information to go on and everyone playing pass the parcel with her medical care, I don't see how you or anybody else could not be incoherent! That's the point! It's like somebody giving you a piece of flatpack furniture with no Allen keys and the instructions in Martian and then criticising you for not whisking it together in a jiffy while whistling a merry tune.

However. Is it your fault this state of affairs exists? No. It is not. It is none of your doing. So don't you forget it.

An evaluation and assessment of her cognitive state would, depending on what else applies, generally be a good idea. By all means go ahead with that.

To see if any ?deterioration in mental state was caused by the ?sepsis which was caused by the ?recurrent uti's and ?failure to manage her care, though… Don't forget she has either by oversight or intentionally excluded you from her medical history to date. Her recent crisis could be the result of almost *anything*. And anyway, what for? - so that you sue someone? Not a hope and, worse, not helpful to her or conducive to better relations with her care team in future.

The point of the evaluation would be to see how she is now, so that you can a) ensure she has adequate support and care for her needs and b) compare it with future assessments to judge whether any treatment or adaptations to her lifestyle are helping.

My aunt, may she rest in peace, was a bit like this when it came to sharing information and welcoming input. Mind you, she was a doctor so you could understand that she didn't like amateurs meddling; but all the same. She might have thought her sister would appreciate an opportunity to share some final moments with her, seeing as she knew 12 to 18 months in advance that she had a terminal diagnosis; but she preferred to keep her secret. Her choice. I personally thought her choice was a crappy one, which hurt my mother's feelings and left me trying to explain to an 89 year old with dementia why her sister didn't want to say goodbye, but I do acknowledge that it was hers to make.

With your mother, if she's always been difficult and private, perhaps you might feel better accepting that she didn't previously want you involved and *therefore*, crucially, you couldn't possibly have done anything to prevent what is happening now. You don't have to like her choice and its implications, just take on board that it absolves you of all responsibility.

So that just leaves what to do now. Tread carefully, I should. Maybe seek a meeting with the SNF's doctor, your mother's key worker or head nurse if she has one, the social worker by all means - the idea being to get everyone together for a definitive sitrep. Once you have a reasonable summary of what your mother's prognosis is and what the plans going forward are, you'll be able to see much more clearly where you fit in to the picture and what you can do to help. Now IF your mother still shoos you away, tells you not to make a fuss, calls you hysterical etc etc again, you will have a further choice. You can go behind her back, seeing as she's really not in possession of her faculties right now at least; or you can take her word for it and step aside from her medical care. Whatever happens, though, what's happened to date is probably not clearly anyone in particular's fault. These are the circumstances your mother created.

I really hope she'll do well in the SNF and recover to be more herself; but be prepared to discover perhaps that the recurrent uti's were the result of something else and that her health has been deteriorating over a far longer period than you realised. Still! - why cross bridges before you come to them? I hope you get some straight answers very soon and that things start going better. Please update, best of luck.