I guess mom is a full stage 7 after hospital stay. Mom. morn mom aspirated eating breakfast. Within 1 hour she had a bad cold. By lunch she coud not feed herself. At 4:00pm unsteady on her feet. By 5:00 could not stay awake. Dr. said no UTI first thing they checked. She was dehydrated and had an infection dont know where. After IV and antibiotics she is home. Dr. wanted to put cath. in we said no, wanted to talk about feeding tube we said no. She never had a problem going to bathroom. All food is pureed now. I thought she would be fine after she got home.NOT. Her mind is just all over the place.We have to feed her. Pooped herself and did not know it .Dont know us half the time. Thinks people are in the house that are not. All kinds of things. What should I do. Should I call hospice, wait for it to get better, I know that wont happen.She was up 4 times last night.I don't think she slept very much. Can she be sundowning? She never has before. She can't get up without help, but she is trying. Did not do that before hospital stay. I thank you for any advice you can give me.

Rube,
I'm so sorry this happened to your and your Mom.
From reading your prior posts, it sounds like this is a pretty big change in your Mom's behavior.
Did the aspiration cause the infection, like an aspiration pneumonia?
Is she taking any antibiotics in pill form, maybe the infection is still there, but not as severe? Could the antibiotics maybe have caused some diarrhea? Maybe being in the hospital or the side effects of the antibiotics has taken her appetite away for a little bit? Some antibiotics have pretty strong GI side effects. Maybe her sleep-wake cycle is really thrown off by being in the hospital? Maybe her strength is temporarily gone because she laid in bed in the hospital for three days and didn't eat?
I know I typed out a lot of "maybes." I'm just looking for possible causes.
I will keep you and your Mom in my prayers.

Dear Ruby,

I'm so sorry to hear about your Mom's decline. You may want to put "Thick it" in her pureed foods as she can still choke on that.

If I were you, I'd call her doctor then call Hospice for an evaluation. If she's accepted into hospice, theat means they will provide "comfort care" only. Please, use all their services including volunteers!

Good Luck.

Please, let us know what you decide.

Call the doctor and tell him what's going on. It's not good to guess at a time like this.

She may have delirium because of the hospital stay. That can happen in older people, and especially in older people with dementia. There may be things that can be done to help treat the delirium.

Home health care just left. She said she has seen this all before after hospital stay. Said it should get better in a few days. No more Dr. app. the nurse will take the blood work to the lab. that is great. Someone will come to see mom two times a week. Thank you all for your advice. If things do not improve I will talk to my sibs about calling hospice I think. I just cant stand to see her like this,it rips my heart out.

Jellybean, Yes it was aspiration pneumonia, and antibiotics in pills, hence the diarrhea.
Lisa , I should have said that everything has to be pudding thick. We allready had the thick-it but mom would not eat her milk as she put it . That was two years ago.
Jab, I will talk to the nurse about that on Monday.


THANK YOU ALL

Ruby,
I'm so glad you have home health services. I hope that you start to see improvements every day.