He lives on his own and up to now has not demonstrated any significant cognitive decline. He had some short term memory issues that I felt was age related. As recently as a early December (a month ago) he was still accurately managing his finances, going to the grocery store, etc. and kept on top of things. He does live alone and has bad hearing loss so I suspect he is depressed. I live out of town and noticed a decline over Christmas. He would say things not quite right and wasn’t taking care of his hygiene like normal. Last week he started getting very confused about things. An aunt that lives nearby told me about it. And then a couple days later he was in a car accident. Thank God no one was hurt but he doesn’t remember why he was out and denies it was his fault. I rushed to be with him. He is mostly fine. Very calm. But says odd things like wanting to go home when he is at home and getting wrapped up about stuff on TV and thinking it is happening in our town or that he might be blamed for it. I’ve called his doctor and we suspect it may be a UTI. A home nurse took a urine sample and his doctor went ahead and started him on an antibiotic. We visit the doctor tomorrow to have a more thorough exam. Has anyone experienced this? I am fearful it is dementia, but it seems to have progressed really fast. If not a UTI, any other ideas what may be going on? Would dementia progress that fast?
My Aunt watches only DVDs because when she sees news or commercials she thinks it's reality and becomes very agitated. Most likely your dad has a UTI, but it is intermingled with dementia. I wish you success in a diagnosis and peace in your heart.
I wish you good luck and hope you'll update us.