My Mom has AD and fractured her hip last week. She was moved to rehab on Friday and has done nothing but sleep since then. She will mumble occasionally to you, but will not open her eyes. The only way to get her to drink anything is to drip some water onto her tongue. Prior to her fracturing her hip, she had started undressing in the dining room of the personal care home where she lives. When the staff would try to stop her, she would hit or kick them. There have been so many changes in such a short period of time, I'm not sure what to expect next. She has had AD for about 4 years. Any ideas or suggestions? Is this the point that you ask for hospice?
I'm not sure if it was the broken hip, the anesthesia or a combination of the two that caused the reduction in her mental process, but it has changed. She is still in rehab and unless she can figure out how to stay in the wheelchair, or get more stable at walking, I'm afraid she's going to have to stay there. I was really hoping she would be able to go back to the personal care facility she was living in.
Hopefully once they get your dad's meds straightened out, he will return to his new "normal".
My story is very similar to yours! My dad (with dementia) fell on August 20th and broke his hip - fixed with a pin as it was the femur, not the hip ball. He had surgery the day after he fell and did pretty well with everything in the hospital. He went back to his NH 2 days after surgery and said a few things that worried me (he asked if my mom was coming home on Sunday, for example. She died 4 years ago and he hasn't mentioned her in over 2 years) so I alerted the nurse. When I went to see him a couple of days later he was alert and talking although he did ask me a couple of weird questions again. 9 days after his surgery he rolled out of bed onto the floor and was sent to the ER (he was fine). When I met him there he was very sleepy and kept asking if I had his house keys. When I went to see him yesterday, 14 days post surgery, he was completely out of it. It took a while to wake him up and he'd fall asleep almost right away again. I was cleaning his room and making a lot of noise and nothing was waking him. I woke him a few times, and he responded sluggishly, and then went right back to sleep. I asked the nurse if he'd had a med change and she went to check, but didn't come back before I had to leave so I'll call tomorrow and talk to someone who knows something. I know he was on Percocet at the hospital, but it seems weird that he hasn't been that sleepy the rest of the time he's been on it. I wondered if maybe they were sort of "restraint-sedating" him so he couldn't fall again.
I'd love to know how your mom is doing (and I'm sorry if I hijacked your thread, but it was almost as though I was writing about my dad!).
I did a lot of reading of studies written about the effects of anesthesia on cognition and it's definitely risky. Right now I'm where you were - I don't know if this is a meds issue or a "dementia kicked to the next level issue."
I would ask the DON at the rehab what the plan is for starting therapy.
And yes, take care of you!
And ask her doctor and/or medical staff about whether hospice is appropriate at this time. Perhaps, they want to see how she's going to do. Did they give you a time frame for how long she might be in that condition? It's hard to say. I realize that.
We had a family friend with dementia who suffered a hip fracture and surgery and he was not able to recover from it. But, we have another family friend who did quite well. It seems that the dementia does lower the person's ability to recover though.
I know this must be so heartbreaking. Take care of yourself.
My mother started undressing in strange places, too; although her dementia was principally vascular rather than AD. I think it was plain disorientation - she couldn't find her way around, it was as if mentally she was crossing her fingers and hoping she was in the right room. And I'd guess that your mother's aggression is to do with fear - people laying hands on her when she's in a state of partial undress, you can see why she'd want to fight them off.
Hugs to you. This is miserably upsetting. Hope you get some clarification very soon.