Difficult Behavior(3)

ripscott

Recently my 101 year old dad with dimension was admitted to the hospital with a UTI. He was released after 8 days to a short term rehab center to get his strength back. During this short hospital stay he lost the ability to walk and his mental state is worse. Now he will at times spit out his pills, he sometimes tries to bite us, he won't open his eyes so we can put in his eye drops and sometimes will swear at and try to punch the nurses. He doesn't act this way every time. He didn't act like this before he went in to the hospital. Sometimes when you try to talk to him he just stares in to space and seems like he doesn't hear you. He doesn't seem to understand simple requests. Is this normal? Will he ever return to his pre hospital stay baseline? Is this the dimension just getting worse?

MN Chickadee

PWD are prone to hospital delirium. If it's that he may bounce back some with time. Or not, it's hard to say. A rehab facility is almost as bad as the hospital, they aren't staffed to the level needed for dementia and can be equally disruptive to the PWD. In his normal setting he may come around some. Or it could be the dementia has just progressed due to the combination of the infection, the change in routine and setting, and his brain changes. The rehab won't keep him long if he isn't making "progress" with the therapies they offer. Do you have a plan in place for his next step? It sounds like he will need a high level of care.

Gypsy J

Be sure to check look into a geriatric psychiatric facilities. They are short term care facilities that specialize in Dementia. Similar to rehab, they work to get the patient stabilize with therapy and medication. My DH is soon to be released from such a facility after a few weeks he has responded wonderfully.