As I travel around the country speaking about dementia, I get to meet a lot of neat people and hear a lot of stories about caring for loved ones throughout the aging process and those living with dementia. I repeatedly hear accounts of husbands, wives, sons and daughters who tell of "sudden" changes in their loved ones which are mistakenly misdiagnosed as sudden onset dementia or sudden drastic progression of the dementia process.
I had the recent misfortune to have little run in with a deer while driving on a major thoroughfare in my town... I could almost see the deer laugh at me as he ran off. Meanwhile, my husband's Jeep (which I was driving at the time) required over three thousand dollars in repairs. When I took the car to the collision center for repairs, I struck up small talk with a fellow customer. As conversations often evolve, the topic of careers came up and I shared that I work in dementia care. I noticed an immediate change in James' (my new friend) face and I knew he had a story to tell.
James went on to share that his mother is 93, fairly healthy, and lives alone. He explained that this was a much different reality than what he expected 8 years ago when his mother was hospitalized after suddenly becoming weak, confused and disoriented. While in the hospital, his mother underwent minimal exams before the provider gathered James and his siblings together to give the somber news that his mom had Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile 8 years later, his mom lived independently dementia free. Was this a miracle? Is this the only case of a cured dementia? Unfortunately, no... The wrong diagnosis was given at the time of her hospitalization - I'm sure by well meaning healthcare providers - who missed a commonly overlooked condition, delirium.
Merriam-Webster provides the following definition for delirium - "an acute mental disturbance characterized by confused thinking and disrupted attention usually accompanied by disordered speech and hallucinations". ACUTE is the key word in that definition. I'm not trying to get overly-medical here but this is an extremely important topic that I feel must be addressed. I am not a doctor and don't play one on TV, so I'm going to give you my Social Worker explanation of delirium and explain why this is important to notice immediately.
Delirium is sudden change in perception, thinking, reasoning, mental status, resulting from a variety of causes including medication changes, dehydration, infections such as Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) and alcohol/drug withdrawal to name a few. Literally any of us can experience delirium despite being healthy and of sound mind. Fortunately, when we are otherwise healthy physically and cognitively, the sudden change warrants attention and action from those around us. We are seen by medical professionals who determine the cause of delirium, treat the underlying cause and we are back to "normal" relatively soon.
Unfortunately, when someone living with dementia (aka Brain Change) shows changes in thinking, reasoning, etc, it is often mistaken as simply a progression in their disease. This delays the process of getting the person seen by a medical professional, which ultimately delays them getting the needed intervention to get them back to their baseline. It is important for family and professional caregivers to know about delirium and take note when a person living with dementia has drastic changes that occur over hours to days. Dementia and the resulting symptoms typically progress over months and years, not hours to days.
So what happened with James' mom? My guess is that the medical providers who treated her - when she was an 85 year old confused and disoriented woman - didn't bother to consider delirium. They saw an older woman with confusion and assumed that she had dementia. Some studies estimate that delirium occurs in nearly 60% of elderly patients during hospitalizations. Yet research reveals alarming numbers of medical doctors and nurses who fail to recognize delirium in older patients. Fortunately, James' mother's delirium cleared in time and she maintains physical and cognitive health 8 years later. The memory of that experience remains for James and his siblings and they are thankful for their mother's health despite this episode of delirium that was mistaken for dementia.
As care partners, it is important to recognize the sudden changes that evolve over hours to days and advocate to get our loved ones the help they need. If you would like more information on delirium or caring for someone living with dementia, comment below or email me @ rebekah@agingcarecoach.com
Delirium is sudden change in perception, thinking, reasoning, mental status, resulting from a variety of causes including medication changes, dehydration, infections such as Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) and alcohol/drug withdrawal to name a few. Literally any of us can experience delirium despite being healthy and of sound mind. Fortunately, when we are otherwise healthy physically and cognitively, the sudden change warrants attention and action from those around us. We are seen by medical professionals who determine the cause of delirium, treat the underlying cause and we are back to "normal" relatively soon.
Unfortunately, when someone living with dementia (aka Brain Change) shows changes in thinking, reasoning, etc, it is often mistaken as simply a progression in their disease. This delays the process of getting the person seen by a medical professional, which ultimately delays them getting the needed intervention to get them back to their baseline. It is important for family and professional caregivers to know about delirium and take note when a person living with dementia has drastic changes that occur over hours to days. Dementia and the resulting symptoms typically progress over months and years, not hours to days.
So what happened with James' mom? My guess is that the medical providers who treated her - when she was an 85 year old confused and disoriented woman - didn't bother to consider delirium. They saw an older woman with confusion and assumed that she had dementia. Some studies estimate that delirium occurs in nearly 60% of elderly patients during hospitalizations. Yet research reveals alarming numbers of medical doctors and nurses who fail to recognize delirium in older patients. Fortunately, James' mother's delirium cleared in time and she maintains physical and cognitive health 8 years later. The memory of that experience remains for James and his siblings and they are thankful for their mother's health despite this episode of delirium that was mistaken for dementia.
As care partners, it is important to recognize the sudden changes that evolve over hours to days and advocate to get our loved ones the help they need. If you would like more information on delirium or caring for someone living with dementia, comment below or email me @ rebekah@agingcarecoach.com
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