The Silent UTI (My Mom’s Alzheimer’s)
“Come on Mom, eat just a few more bites, it’s your favorite.”
No amount of cajoling can get Mom to eat the full meal. Even her favorite chocolate dessert sits untouched and melting. I switch to “Plan B” and whip up a quick vanilla protein shake with some fresh veggies snuck in. This helps. Mom drinks a good six ounces. Considering her half-eaten dinner and the shake, we are doing okay for nutrition, but she continues to refuse water and other fluids.
Mom’s interest and/ or ability in walking is also decreasing. She is moving tentatively even with hands-on assistance. The trip from the dining table to the bathroom is a slow-motion affair.
Mom has been slowing down considerably all-round, but it is often followed by a “bounce back”. The bounce-backs are getting fewer and farther in between. Still, I don’t see it coming when Mom just stops.
One moment I am guiding her across the threshold from the living room to the bathroom, the next minute she is still as a statue, all her weight is on me, and I am struggling to stay upright. Fortunately, the walker, is within reach. I have kept it close, “just in case”. Well today is the “in case”.
I hold Mom with one hand and open the walker with the other, swinging it around and placing her hands on the handles just before we both start to…
