How long does it take?

Zaellan

After having a week or so of more hallucinations and other things, my mom got tested for a uti and it was discovered she did have a silent one.  We are getting medication today.  How long will it take to see results?  I know that some of it will depend on the person but I'm talking in general.  Thanks for any information you can provide me.

sandwichone123

Often antibiotics reduce symptoms very quickly, within a few days.

DrinaJGB

keep in mind that she needs to be well hydrated during the day. Water or herbal teas like camomille or ginger with lemon-- with no caffeine is best. Caffeine dehydrates the body. PWD do not tend to drink enough and that leads to UTI's. So if she does not hydrate herself the UTI will just keep coming back.

Jo C.

Response time will vary with individuals.  Usually the response begins to be felt about the third day of antibiotics, but this is different in individuals.

She will need FULL course of the antibiotics given in the time frame recommeneded; do not stop the treatment or mess up the time schedule for giving the med.   For some people with dementia, antibiotics can cause some changes in behaviors and/or cognition and/or function - if this becomes a big problem, let the physician know.  If not a big problem, once the full course of antibiotics has been given and no longer being taken, that impact goes away.  Try to ensure good hygiene and if she wears incontinence supplies, that they are changed as recommended to lower the chance for re-infection.

Encourage liquid intake.  If she likes cranberry juice or lemonade or lemon in water, it is good to acidify the urine.   Since she has had this infection, this puts you on alert for repeat infections for the future.  Hope having the infection treated helps with the behavioral issues.  Let us know; we send best wishes for a good outcome.

J.

DrinaJGB

When my DH was finally discharged after 4 months--he had a super bug bladder infection that kept coming back. After coming home I had to irrigate his bladder with a compounded antibiotic solution that his urologist prescribed.

  I also gave him  ginger tea with lemon---the ginger is a natural anti inflammatory and the lemon is acidic. After several weeks his super bug infection was finally eradicated and has never come back. He drinks herbal tea daily.

  Cranberry juice is good for acidity but contains sugar so be careful with that because too much sugar can lead to yeast overgrowth which is another nightmare to deal with.

Zaellan

We are a day and a half in for the medication.  

The paranoia has calmed down a bit (thank goodness), she is still having hallucinations.  The hallucinations are mostly at night, she is having vivid dreams, thinks people are in her room. Not really sure how to handle it.  She wonders why they are there and how could they get in the house, that sort of thing. Why are they here.  She is delusional in the evenings..could this be sundowning? Uti and sundowning?

Thanks to everyone that gave me advice so far.

harshedbuzz

Zaellan wrote:

The paranoia has calmed down a bit (thank goodness), she is still having hallucinations.  The hallucinations are mostly at night, she is having vivid dreams, thinks people are in her room. Not really sure how to handle it.  She wonders why they are there and how could they get in the house, that sort of thing. Why are they here.  She is delusional in the evenings..could this be sundowning? Uti and sundowning?

This could just be disease progression and sundowning.

Dad did have sundowning to a certain degree; he certainly got nastier in the late afternoon through the overnights but it almost seemed like a kind of sensory overload and reminded me almost of a newborn with colic. Keeping the day quiet helped. 

Dad had a lot of delusional thinking and hallucinations (both visual and auditory) starting in the middle stages of the disease. It's worth noting that some hallucinations "annoyed" him; he routinely heard the kids upstairs making noise past their bedtime. That was an easy fix- mom would disappear for a minute or so and report that she's taken care of it and told them to go to sleep. A few hallucinations were actually pleasant especially in the later stages. He once snapped at me not to sit in a chair because a friend of his was sitting there. I certainly wasn't going to correct him around that.

Another issue he had that you may be seeing is a glitching in visual processing where something the PWD sees is misinterpreted by the brain. Sometimes shadows looked like people to him. He was freaked out by reflections in windows and glass-framed prints and watercolors. In one psychotic episode, he removed every framed bit of art that was a portrait or under reflective glass leaving the oil landscapes, seascapes and still lives in place. Some people misidentify themselves in mirrors. We redecorated. 

Another thing to watch for is what they watch on TV which can be triggering. My mom loved her crime dramas, but I had to put parental controls on the main TV to keep dad from watching shows and internalizing the plots. Sometimes he'd tell me about having been kidnapped or murdered the night before. 

Thanks to everyone that gave me advice so far.

Zaellan

My sister and I differ on how we should deal with the hallucinations.  She says that we should be united on saying that the people that she is seeing aren't there.  The people supposedly want money from her, she keeps seeing them, she has even told them she doesn't have any money but they keep coming back. My question is how can I convince her that the people aren't there?  Is this even possible? What do I tell her? Will she ever believe me.   

I think that I keep hoping she won't see them anymore. Maybe I'm the delusional one.

I hope the uti meds will help with the hallucinations? Is this reasonable?

@harshedbuzz thank you for sharing, the information was helpful

jfkoc

There is no way you are going to convince your mother. What she sees is real to her. Best would be to tell her something that makes her feel you are on top of the situation.

If symptoms continue  you may not be treating with the correct antibiotic. The culture will let you know if you need to change.