My bedbound dad has experienced what I would consider a pretty quick recent decline. Prior to 4th of July weekend he was occasionally confused/disoriented/living in the past, but his baseline was forgetfulness and repetition. For the past month I’d say he’s disoriented/confused as baseline, with increasingly rarer periods of lucidity. He starts sentences and forgets he was talking. I have to remind him several times during a meal that he’s eating (and prior he was SHOVELING food in) and he’s increasingly unaware of my presence in the room. I know that there is a huge variation in dementia progression but does this sound within the range of typical? My brother is convinced he had a stroke or something we missed, but I’m with him so much that I don’t see how that could be. Any dementia-experienced caregivers care to weigh in? He gets severely agitated/aggressive with UTI and this is not presenting in that way, so I don’t think that is it (and surely after a month it should have gotten worse and prompted more medical needs, if that was what it was, right?)
ETA: I looked back and I posted previously about behavior change the week before the 4th of July, but right after I posted he got a NASTY upper respiratory virus, so I attributed his behavior change to getting sick. Could a virus have caused mental decline?
If it isn't a UTI, has your Dad been placed on any new prescription meds? Could be a side effect from the med or the med is not playing well with the other meds your Dad is taking.
It is also possible that your dad has had mini strokes that have caused the decline. My Husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and I think he also had Vascular Dementia as well. There were times of a slow and steady decline then all of a sudden he would not be able to do something he had been able to do the day before.
SO it is a possibility that the 2 have caused this decline.
Is your dad on Hospice? They would be of tremendous help to you and dad.
For the longest time I wanted to evaluate and understand and even diagnose from day to day... but the fact is that there were a lot of ups and downs...even hourly changes. If he doesn't have a UTI there isn't much you can do except accept what is.
I finally agreed to Hospice in May and he is in a good memory care. It has been helpful to have him around people who deal with this all the time and to stop trying to "fix" things... I highly recommend giving them a call. You don't have to commit to signing him into hospice/
As far as strokes are concerned, he could be having them & you'd never know it. Only medical imaging would confirm that he's had strokes and not always then, either.
Best of luck with a difficult situation
In some situations, previous symptoms for the same condition can be different, or symptoms that occurred for something several times can also show up in something new.
Sometimes changes can take a long time to appear, but also can appear relatively quickly.
Get another opinion. You’ll feel better for having done so.