Is my old mother crazy?

It began ok, the invitation over mid week. Nagging by Saturday morning when no one was certain of what they were doing after church. Us caving in and promising to be there on Sunday at one o’clock as usual.

Then it happened. We rang the bell and a straggly woman in a house dress answered. Why, this could not be my mother who put make up on to get the mail at the end of the driveway every day. She began yelling at my husband and my sister stating that we disturbed her nap.

She would not let us in and shooed us away. Then she turned around and attempted to walk away when she fell! My mother does not fall and there was no aroma of food from the kitchen.

I pushed open the door and ran in to help this imposter. My husband called 911 and we had her brought to the emergency room. After several long hours and a negative x-ray for broken bones, we all were sent home with this yelling, cursing stranger who not long ago was teaching bible studies and reading psalms to our children.

Over the next exhausting few days and taking turns in shifts, our entire family watched as she went from bad to worse. She stopped eating and hollering at one point and began napping and attempting to get up without one of us to help her even though we begged her not to do this.

We looked into psychiatrists in the area and then after praying to God about it, decided she needed professional nursing care as we all had responsibilities that prevented us from staying with her to watch her.

We had a family meeting and decided to put mom into a nursing home. Within twenty-four hours she was admitted and my sister and I cried all the way home in the car when mom told us how she hated us and that her daughters would come after us when they returned from their trip.

After two more falls that night that I was called about from the nurses caring for her, I received a call from the nursing supervisor at eight o’clock the following morning and was told that mom had a urinary tract infection.

Oh great, another problem I thought. Well, she also told me that elderly people and especially women were at risk for urinary infections as our urethra’s (where the urine comes out of) are short and sometimes women wipe themselves back to front causing stool to get into the opening of the urethra and begin an infection.

“Ok so she just needs antibiotics right”? I was over tired from the calls in the middle of the night regarding the falls and I was short with her. I silently prayed for forgiveness. She continued in her calming voice to explain to me that the infection could be responsible for not only the falls (trying to get to the bathroom often due to urgency from the infection or even imbalance from the infection process) but also her change in mental status which I was able to figure out meant mom may not be crazy after all. She continued to tell me that urinary infections are the number one reason an elderly woman may have behavior changes, abdominal pain, urinary pain/stinging, having to go to the bathroom but only urinating small amounts, tiredness, low back pain if the infection goes to the kidney, loss of appetite possibly from nausea or just the infection process itself, and potentially several hospitalizations as repeated infections have the ability to diminish the typical urinary infection symptoms mentioned and the infection becomes septic (in the blood stream).

I felt some relief as mom had all those symptoms but I was still skeptical. That day mom was started on an antibiotic and the staff continuously made her drink water.

Two days later my sister and I went to visit and mom greeted us at the front entrance of the nursing home with her bags packed. Her hair was set. Her makeup was applied. Her dress was spotless and her stockings were newly washed. My sister and I looked at each other in disbelief. The nurse ran into the lobby with a desperate look on her face. Relief shot through her as she saw my sister and me.

After mother convincing us in her stern tone that she was fine, wanted to go home immediately, and how it was so embarrassing to be in an old age home, we signed her out and brought her home.

It has been almost a year and mom has had a couple more urinary infections that get treated immediately when she starts ranting incoherently. Other than that life is back to normal and we are all enjoying our Sunday dinners.

Mom is not crazy…… Just older.
God is good!

Comments