Dementia after surgery?

[bisous]

My mom is in the hospital. She just had a procedure done to correct an esophageal diverticuli (sp??) and she is...not doing well.

Physically they say she looks very good but mentally she is scaring me a lot. My dad (stepdad) is with her right now. She doesn't think she is in the hospital. She thinks she is "being kept prisoner" and she even can't remember that they already did her surgery! She is refusing to work with certain nurses and keeps insisting that they lock the doors (or that she leave). She is taking off her medical equipment to the point that they've trained a camera on her and will verbally remind her not to remove her equipment. They invited my stepdad to sleep overnight in her room because she is being an uncooperative patient.

This is scary. This woman is 70yo but she just retired 2 years ago from full time teaching. During the pandemic I feel like she had a bit of a mental decline and her memory DOES appear to be slipping. But this is just next level.

Has anyone gone through this before? I'm a little worried for my dad! He's 74 and doesn't have the best health (though nothing acute is going on right now). It is just a strain on him to be in charge of her! She must feel so scared but she is completely, totally illogical!

Any advice appreciated!

[KpbS]

I’m sorry! I’ve heard this is a fairly commonly occurrence in older folks.

https://utswmed.org/medblog/postoper...educing-risks/

[KpbS]

Another
https://sunnybrook.ca/research/conte...education-pocd

[WatchingThemGrow]

A friend’s research is ICU Delirium but I don’t know what helps! So sorry she’s feeling/acting this way. Praying for these symptoms to diminish! Hugs


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[m4nash]

Something similar happened to my MIL after major surgery. It ended up being a reaction to the pain medication they were giving her. It was very frightening, but resolved quickly once her pain medication was adjusted. I am so sorry your family is going through this.

[bisous]

Thank you for the links and words of encouragement! I’m trying to be positive. She’s just had surgery on Tuesday so isn’t even 48 hours post operation. It just feels like all of a sudden she’s elderly. Last week she watched my littlest kids for me and this I’m worried she’s going to yank out her IV and try to escape the hospital!

Would appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts you can muster!

[dogmom]

I am so sorry your family is going though this. Yes, it can absolutely be ICU delirium. There are multiple factors that feed into delirium, most are hard to control. Although there has been a lot of research into delirium, there has been very little discovered to help it. One of the most important things is to get real sleep and correct circadian rhythm issues, which is hard. There is very little actual sleep in an ICU or acute care floor. Avoiding certain psychoactive drugs is also important, especially in the elderly. However, sometimes they do need to be used. It’s a real rock and a hard place issue. If your mother isn’t in a room with a window advocate for her to move so she can get natural light. Ask what they are doing to promote a good 6 hours a sleep. (Like don’t are her up at 4 am for labs if she just fell asleep at 2 am.). There can be long term cognitive effects along with depression and PTSD after Delirium. It takes a lot of time for these things to improve, sometimes people never get to baseline. Making sure she has good follow up is helpful, but there are few places that treat post ICU delirium patients in a holistic way. I put a couple of links that might be helpful. Feel free to PM me.

https://www.icudelirium.org/patients...ilies/overview
Great starting place for families

List of clinics and support groups
https://www.sccm.org/MyICUCare/THRIV...s-and-Families

Nice summary article about treatment in outpatient setting, includes a list of problems

https://www.aafp.org/dam/AAFP/docume...afp/Wilbur.pdf

[mom2binsd]

I work with many patients who arrive at the nursing home after surgery, who are otherwise within normal cognition for their age (so some mild memory issues), this is extremely common. Post anesthesia and or a reaction to pain meds can result in a wide range of cognitive changes exactly as you are describing. Usually within 3-5 days it resolves, but it can be scary for sure. Hope it's short term. If she is on Norco or Fentanyl, those two seem to have the most side effects like you describe.

[kali]

My grandmother had delirium after surgery which they figured out was caused by fentanyl. She went back to her usual sharp self after they corrected her medication. I hope they resolve your mom’s condition quick!

[essnce629]

My first thought was a reaction to pain meds. I hope they figure it out and she improves quickly.

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