My mother-in-law has been in a memory care facility since last November after a very fast stair-step decline. In 2020 she was completely independent, and by this January she was unable to walk or complete any ADLs on her own.
She has had a few illnesses since entering the facility - covid in December, and various stomach flu and respiratory viruses since then. They seem to have accelerated her decline. She also had a couple UTIs that were tested and treated.
For the last five or so months, she's had two modes: crying hysterically and babbling nonsense, or keeping her head down and her eyes closed. About two months ago, she stopped speaking and stopped chewing her food, so the facility put her on a pureed diet. They tried unsuccessfully (many times, apparently) to get a urine sample to test for a UTI, and she didn't get any new medications or therapies during this time.
Suddenly, about three weeks ago, it was like she went back in time to last December before she got covid. She's following conversations, speaking in full sentences that sometimes make sense, and eating solid food again. She seems to understand where she is and why, which is a first - she's been very confused about all that for the last year, even when she lived with us. We were about to put her on hospice and we're pretty confounded.
We've heard of dementia patients rallying right before death, but this doesn't seem like that; my understanding is that usually only lasts for a day or two. She has consistently been doing much better for weeks now. We don't know what kind of dementia she has because her decline was so swift, she was unable to withstand any testing, but it seems like vascular.
Has anyone else experienced something like this, or heard of it?
It's also possible she had a urinary infection....very similar symptoms. Even when treated with antibiotics, sometimes it takes another round of meds or even IV meds to clear it up.
I certainly hope she has truly recovered from a medical issue and her family will once again have her back!
And no change in the food itself, but only in its being now mechanically soft?
I don't know what electrolyte panels were consistently run, but I can only wonder if there was malabsorption of some food.
I think few of us know how married to our brain our guts are.
Interesting anecdotal story here. Really is. Every patient is such a mystery. I can only wish you the best.
Use this time to get her strength up (PT), work on hand/eye coordination, etc. Enjoy the phase while you can.
Eventually these abated. Meds helped. Mom still gets quite confused occasionally, and new odd behaviors come and go, but no distressed behavior for quite awhile. Currently she’s mostly lucid, though rather creative with confabulations, but her sweet, gentle personality is usually intact.
I think of the scary months as episodes of delirium overlaid on, and exacerbating, slowly progressing dementia. I keep reading how unpredictable dementia can be, and expect sharp downturns or sideway swerves can happen any time. But thought someone should report that there can be long stretches of stability too. Of course there are good days and bad days, but gently stable decline overall.
It’s kind of shocking to see a person on death’s door one minute and then laughing and talking the next.
My brother married a woman who had four children. He loved those children.
The youngest one was in diapers when he first met her. They were very close. She moved away and my brother missed her terribly even though they kept in touch.
I called her when my brother entered hospice. She drove for hours to see him. I was wondering if he would die before she arrived at hospice.
A switch flipped on when he saw her. I told my niece that I think he was waiting for her before he died.
He was ecstatic to see her! He started talking and laughing. His last rally!
He went to speech therapy three times a week. He struggled to speak with us.
Every now and then he would be able to speak very clearly. We were amazed when he spoke clearly.
His clear speech didn’t ever seem to last long that long. It was sporadic and brief.
I suppose in your mom’s case, only time will tell how she is doing.
Wishing you and your mom all the best. It’s really hard to see a parent dealing with life altering conditions.
That said, periods of rallying at end of life can also last for a while, not just days. Some elders can go on for months and be taken off hospice care, as it says in this article:
https://hospicecarelc.org/rallying-at-end-of-life/
Wishing you the best of luck with all you're dealing with.