She has refused medication all her life, continues to fire her home health aid, moves every few months to escape the hallucinations. She has no money, is on Medicare/Medicaid. She refuses any medical help. Help!
I've been thru the exact same thing with my 92 year old mother. The hallucinations, delusions, confusion etc. are side effects of the UTI. First time we experienced her confusion and hallucinations we thought her dementia was rapidly progressing. Took her to ER and they discovered the UTI. She was given an antibiotic and the confusion went away immediately and she was back to her old self.
The bigger problem we have encountered since that first UTI is the recurring UTIs because of her incontinence. My mother has been on so many antibiotics that the oral ones don't work anymore. The last UTI landed her in the hospital. She had a multi-antibiotic resistant bug. She even had to have a PICC line installed. This last UTI in early Feb. became so serious that the hospital arranged for a Hospice rep to meet with us family. Fortunately, the antibiotics through the PICC line worked but that still leaves us with a dilemma: "what do we do about the next UTI"? or "how do we prevent the next UTI"? In my mother's situation, it is impossible to prevent incontinent episodes 100%. That puts us caregivers between a rock & a hard place. Some doctors put their patients on prophylactic doses of antibiotics to keep the low counts of bacteria from turning into full blown UTI's. That works for some patients but not for everybody and definitely won't work for my mother anymore. So what we have done for our mother is to focus on boosting her immune system. There are many ways to do this but we discovered something that seems to be working very effectively at keeping the UTI bacteria from getting out of control. This thing is also completely safe and over-the-counter. It is related to pro-biotics but engineered in such a way as to produce an immune response when ingested.
Would your mother be open-minded enough to take a supplement if she understands that it is not a drug that she is taking?
It is absolutely heartbreaking. We are trying to get an elder abuse agency involved. She refuses to give any of us medical power of attorney. Our hands seem to be tied at this moment It's very cold at home currently and she refuses to return to the 55 and over highrise she insisted on moving into. She has moved 3 times 18 months!
SueC1957 We believe she does on some level. She refuses the evaluation. She may go to the doctor occasionally but then will not take prescribed meds or follow their directions. She lives alone with a home aid 4 hrs per day, until she fires them. She went through approximately 30 aids in 24 months. She hasn't had on for the last 3-4 weeks and refuses to get anyone. She is extremely difficult We are at a loss.
The bigger problem we have encountered since that first UTI is the recurring UTIs because of her incontinence. My mother has been on so many antibiotics that the oral ones don't work anymore. The last UTI landed her in the hospital. She had a multi-antibiotic resistant bug. She even had to have a PICC line installed. This last UTI in early Feb. became so serious that the hospital arranged for a Hospice rep to meet with us family. Fortunately, the antibiotics through the PICC line worked but that still leaves us with a dilemma: "what do we do about the next UTI"? or "how do we prevent the next UTI"? In my mother's situation, it is impossible to prevent incontinent episodes 100%. That puts us caregivers between a rock & a hard place. Some doctors put their patients on prophylactic doses of antibiotics to keep the low counts of bacteria from turning into full blown UTI's. That works for some patients but not for everybody and definitely won't work for my mother anymore. So what we have done for our mother is to focus on boosting her immune system. There are many ways to do this but we discovered something that seems to be working very effectively at keeping the UTI bacteria from getting out of control. This thing is also completely safe and over-the-counter. It is related to pro-biotics but engineered in such a way as to produce an immune response when ingested.
Would your mother be open-minded enough to take a supplement if she understands that it is not a drug that she is taking?
It's very cold at home currently and she refuses to return to the 55 and over highrise she insisted on moving into. She has moved 3 times 18 months!
Is she competent to care for herself?
Will she go to a doctor?
We believe she does on some level. She refuses the evaluation. She may go to the doctor occasionally but then will not take prescribed meds or follow their directions. She lives alone with a home aid 4 hrs per day, until she fires them. She went through approximately 30 aids in 24 months. She hasn't had on for the last 3-4 weeks and refuses to get anyone. She is extremely difficult
We are at a loss.
It's so hard to watch our loved ones hurt themselves.