Delirium

[movingtables]

This isn't medical as i know what the condition is and I've read up on the subject.
for those that don't know it's a state of acute confusion.

my mother went into hospital last week (aged 72) with a chest and water infection that has induced
" delirium " currently being treated with antibiotics in hospital.

I'm interested in people who have experienced delirium or know of a family member / friend
who suffered with it.
I would say my mum is more agitated with it as she just wants out of the hospital but she curently
cant remember the correct month and time. she knows who all our family members are and her date of birth and where she lives and used to live.
with it being my mum its quite a scary time because the symptoms mimic that of dementia but it presents itself over night rather than a slow decline.
with her being older it can take weeks rather than days to resolve.

so has anyone had experience with delirium ?

thank you.

 

[MookJong]

My grandma had it, she got very confused and would have half sleep half waking dreams that she could not distinguish from reality. It was fairly short lived in our case, I wouldn’t worry, she is being treated and in the best place. Keeping hydrated seemed to help in our case.

Hope she is better soon.

 

[movingtables]

My grandma had it, she got very confused and would have half sleep half waking dreams that she could not distinguish from reality. It was fairly short lived, I wouldn’t worry.

Hope she is better soon.

thanks buddy.

 

[Dis86]

Yup. When I had full blown flu as a teenager. My mum caught me talking to the wall. I was sleep walking. Didn't know where I was at all. Horrible but passed with no ill effects.

 

[The_Abyss]

My wife’s grandad had it last year after a water infection, compounded by the fact that he also has dementia. Because of the latter it was difficult to assess when the symptoms cleared but it took several months. He suffered terrible short term memory loss and talked a lot of nonsense, and also lost a lot of filter / inhibition.

 

[neviditelny]

I come across it very often at work and it is difficult to say how quick she will come out of it as everyone react differently to the antibiotics (and the different kinds of antibiotics). But she shall get better from it.

 

[movingtables]

I come across it very often at work and it is difficult to say how quick she will come out of it as everyone react differently to the antibiotics (and the different kinds of antibiotics). But she shall get better from it.

i hope so

 

[Efour]

Yup. When I had full blown flu as a teenager. My mum caught me talking to the wall. I was sleep walking. Didn't know where I was at all. Horrible but passed with no ill effects.

I had a similar experience. Fever and total lack of energy but hallucinating so madly I thought my duvet was some giant monster mouth trying to eat me.
I spent what seemed like hours trying to fight my way out of it, ended up screaming for help in complete exhaustion.... Not fun times

 

[Werewolf]

I hope your mother recovers from it fairly quickly and in full.

As has been said it can last hours, or weeks/months, I hope in your mothers case it's only a short term instance but before she comes out of the hospital it is worth trying to get the details of who to call for assistance if it does take longer.
In my mother case she had it after a series of nasty infections and it lasted something like 6 months from the initial signs to her coming back to something like normal (she ended up being diagnosed with dementia as well* when she didn't seem to make a full recovery), and for several months we had to provide 24/7 care because she was having delusions and doing things like trying to walk without her crutches (which in her case was a very serious fall risk due to a failed hip op that meant she couldn't support weight on on leg).

I would suggest that if possible before your mother comes out of the hospital you try and have a word with the doctor about any specific care she'll need, and try to get information on who to contact if she needs more assistance during recovery at home than you can manage as trying to find those contacts in an emergency is not great fun.
Our local GP was great, 999 was great, social services seemed to be completely overwhelmed but tried, the out of hours GP service on the other hand was ****** useless the one time we had to contact them and more concerned with passing the buck**, if I'd had the time and energy left over at the time I would have made an official complaint (which would have been a first).

This isn't meant to scare you, but more to say to ask questions re care and contact details in case it is a severe case and doesn't clear up quickly, as I wish I'd known how bad it could be and who to contact/how to get effective help in urgent situation.


*Looking back she'd had the signs of the low level of dementia for a while but before the delirium she'd managed to cover for them.

**I don't think we even managed to speak to a doctor, i'm not sure it was even a nurse that after listening to the problem told us to call 999 as they didn't deal with "that sort of thing", 999 had a specialist nurse call us back who listened and said that the GP should be dealing with it as it was within their remit and they'd request the local OOH GP call in (which never happened, fortunately the immediate crisis passed).

 

[kwerk]

Endotoxin (dead bacteria bits) from an infection and an immune response of a high amount of inflammatory cytokines will cause delirium.

Edit: this says there's a 2-3 fold increased risk of dementia https://hms.harvard.edu/news/delirium-and-inflammation

 

[movingtables]

thank you for replying everyone