UTIs in the elderly

My mom had one too at one point and the aides at her nursing home knew something was up because she was very agitated and not acting like herself so they called me around 10 pm to take her to the ER. We weren’t there more than 15 minutes before the nurse suspected it was a UTI and did a urine test. Sure enough, that’s what it was.

We learned really quickly that it was either a UTI or dehydration when my grandmother would start acting weird. Just crazy.

I'm glad you guys figured it out for your Dad and he's being treated.

Vaginal estrogen can help prevent UTIs. Would be especially helpful for those who are asymptomatic.

I've heard that too. I sure hope the meds help make him all better.

I understand. This is so hard, especially when you aren’t around 24/7. My dad is early-mid lever dementia. I’m not around him enough to understand exactly what he’s dealing with, so I get a little uncomfortable around him. My sweet mom has been through it before with her mom, and is so patient with him.

Big hugs! Aging parents is a tough road.

We are dealing with this with my mom currently. No symptoms until it's bad enough that she gets pretty nutty buddy. We constantly talk to her about early symptoms, but she just doesn't catch it. I've been wondering about making the over the counter UTI test a part of her regimen. Perhaps have her test every other Monday.

katlady, any idea what the cream is that your mom was prescribed?

(((( HUGS )))) to you and your family, dear one.  

It's even worse for mum because she never mastered English. She was far better conversationally when she was still working (housekeeping in a hospital and interacting with patients, docs, nurses and other folks.  But that was almost 30 years ago.  Her community, aside from some wonderful neighbors, has always been the Polish community. Church, party/weddings/banquest at the Polish Hall...    The end result is that she can't even enjoy a simple Hallmark type movie because she doesn't get the dialog.  So those of us who know the language all speak Polish with mum.

I go home to Canada and stay at mum's for 3-4 weeks at a time about 4 times a year now, and FT regularly with her and my sister. Thankfully sister is semi-retired and lives 3 miles from mum, she provides a lot of support.  It's def. hard to see mum failing, it's like watching her spark/light being slowly, and now more rapidly, extinguished.

Tearisci it is very common in the elderly for the symptoms you described about your dad to happen. It happened to my mom she all of a sudden couldn’t remember what she had done all day or what time she got up. It was scary, but it was a UTI

My dad got a uti when he was in the nursing home. His behavior went off the rails, they tested him and it came back negative. After a couple of days when wasn’t any better they tested him again and it was positive. After taking the antibiotics, he was back to his usual self.

When their mental status is a little impaired to start with it can be really easy to miss what’s going on. I went to see my dad every day, so drastic changes were easier for me to detect.

Getting old isn’t fun for anyone.

My  ex fiancé used to call his mother back in Nebraska once a week.  She was living in an assisted living facility.  It was like little apartments for each person with a small kitchen in it.  But they also had a community living room and dining room where the people could receive their meals if they did not want to cook for themselves.

From what he had told me about his mom before I met her, she had always been quite odd.  And when I did meet her, I sure understood what he meant.  She was incredibly manipulative and immature.  She was pitching a huge crying and stomping fit because I was there with her son and she didn’t want to share him.  She told me to go back to the hotel room because he was hers, not mine.  He was a 62-year old man!  But she cried and threw herself on the couch and demanded he pay attention to her, not me.  So yes, she was a strange bird.  I just went and sat in their courtyard area to let him calm her down.

Then several months later during one of his phone conversations with her, I guess she was really acting very strange.  She thought he was his father calling her.  His father had passed many years before.  He was telling me all the strange things she said and I told him to call the front desk and let them know.  I told him how a UTI could cause extreme confusion in an elderly person and it seemed more logical to me that it was a UTI rather than something like a brain tumor or sudden dementia like he was afraid of since it came on suddenly since his last phone call to her.  

He called the desk and they took her across the street to the facility where she could be monitored and tested. When there, she got more confused and was claiming there was a man hiding under her hospital bed and stealing the food off her dinner tray.  She was tested and yes, she had a bad UTI.  They kept her in the hospital section until she was acting more like her usual oddness.  The facility was used to her strange behavior already and might not have been able to pick up on the changes that her son did so it was a good thing he let them know right away.

Yes!  I get a UTI every time I pass a kidney stone.  But I have no symptoms of the UTI at all.

It’s so weird you should mention that because when my mom had hers it was also about a week or so after she had fallen and hit her head! I remember thinking, “Ugh great, I just did this last week!” Meaning sitting for hours in the ER while she was getting checked out for a concussion or a brain bleed (which she thankfully didn’t have).