Still figuring out this site...Update on my mother and the 180 degree change.More blood work will be done today. Should the pancreatitis levels go higher, an ultrasound is the next step. But, what's after? The doctor said any infection or pain can cause alzheimers/dementia to progress faster, I guess that was why my mother did a 180 degree turn....poor mom...
Anything that stresses the body or mind can worsening AD. My mother-in-law survived a terrible bout of pneumonia but she came out of far worse cognitively than she did before the illness. Hospitalization can really speed up the decline.
Pancreatitis is serious in an otherwise healthy person. The fact that this had made your mother's AD worse is, sadly, not surprising.
Stick with the site. You'll find many people who can commiserate and give you the advantage of their own experiences.
Take care,
Carol
As for pancreatitis, sorry, there might be a couple of doctors who are caregivers on this site, but for the rest of us, we just cannot answer that question.
Each time my husband had some kind of an illness -- infection, cough, constipation -- just about anything his dementia symptoms got more pronounced. If it was something the required followup care, the therapists always told me he was at a new level and would not return to his pre-illness level of functioning. Each time they were wrong. Unfortunately the recovery took longer than the therapy so they never were around long enough to see how wrong they were.
Poor mom, indeed. Hugs to her and to you. Like so many aspects of dementia, what happens next is a wait-and-see situation. When they find the cause of the pancreatitis they'll treat it. When she is back in good health on that score you'll find out if her dementia symptoms return to former baseline or not.