A Little under the Weather

I checked on Mom last night before going to bed and found her standing next to the bed pulling her jammy bottoms down.  "What cha doing mom?"  I asked.  "Oh nothing."  as she pulled her bottoms up and attempted to get back in bed.  So I checked her and her bottoms were wet along with her sheets.  She was trying to cover due to her embarrassment.  I cleaned her up and changed the sheets.

This morning I checked on her and found her dressed but I could tell immediately by the smell in the room that she had an accident.  Her jeans were all wet and also another pair of jammy bottoms were wet and laying on the register to dry.  Her sheets were again wet.   I quickly helped her to the shower and stripped her sheets.

After breakfast mom complained of a "stomachache" which she had last week also.  No other symptoms other than she has been a little more confused than usual the last couple of weeks.  Mom rarely has been incontinent or complains of pain.  So putting this together I called her Dr. and we went to see her this afternoon as I suspected she had a bladder infection.  After a couple of attempts to get a urine specimen we were finally successful and it was confirmed she indeed had a bladder infection.

Many times an older person especially one with Alzheimer's may not have the usual symptoms of a bladder infection.  The caregiver must look for more subtle signs such as:

• increased confusion 
• fatigue  
• foul smelling, cloudy urine
• frequent urge to urinate or incontinence
• abdominal pain or crying out when going to the bathroom 
• fever, nausea or vomiting when kidney infection present