Kathy and I took mom to the hospital on Saturday.  We had all been experiencing mom's increased agitation and confusion.  Well, it came to a head on Thursday.  We tried to get a urine sample (actually the nurse did the trying), thinking it was related to a urinary tract infection, but was unsuccessful.  Her doctor said to contact her again on Monday.  By Saturday we decided that we needed to get her seen immediately.  At the hospital, she was extremely belligerent, fighting with the nurses and trying to bite.  With her hands held down, she would cough in people’s faces.  You have to give her points for creativity.  Once the UTI was diagnosed, she was put on an antibiotic and admitted.  The first night was hard.  She had to be restrained.  The next day, Sunday, she just slept all day.   On Monday she started coming around.  She sang to dad when she saw him.  By late morning, she was awake and happy.  I took her home Monday.  On the way home she said that she was so tired, but didn’t know that she could take a nap because of the kids.  I told her the kids were gone for the day, so there wouldn’t be a problem.  That calmed her down and she fell asleep in the car.

Since then, she is still more confused than she had been, but she’s happy and cooperative.  This is a common response to a UTI for an elderly person with Alzheimer’s.  The doctor described it as acute on chronic delirium on dementia.  He said is could take a couple of weeks for the delirium to pass and mom to get back to where she had been.  Because she is so extra confused, we have a caregiver spending the night.  We have that planned through Sunday night, then we’ll reassess.  Frankly, I don’t know if we can ever leave them alone again at night.  The crazy thing is that dad is happy we have a caregiver there.  It had gotten so hard for him at night with mom up and wandering about.  On a happy note, mom got up last night one time and said to the caregiver that she was so happy to have family visiting.