My mom, 79, fell and broke her femur above the knee just before last Christmas. In the hospital, pain meds galore, and she was crazy! After screaming at the staff to not give any more opioids, she kinda mellowed out. The best nurse there, sweet little black girl, who got called a “N” over and over again, said that elderly folks do exactly that, sometimes even because of urinary tract infections. Moved her 300 miles to be near me...10 minutes away. Mom was afraid to pee her pants during the move, didn’t drink water for 2 days, arrived and went crazy after passing out in front of the paramedics. Cursed me like a drunken sailor. I never even knew she was in the Navy!. Once settled in to the board-and-care, where a personal doctor straightened out the meds, cured her of the UTI, she is back to being mom. She, a bit a dementia, doesn’t always remember that she’s in Sierra Madre, CA, and not Kingman, AZ, has finally settled in. She still thinks she’s going home soon, but realizes she can’t. My advice is to check meds, dehydration, UTI stuff, and general health. A huge eye-opener. I’d damn near written her off as completely bonkers. Now she is the sweet, but forgetful, mom. Still confused, but back from the hell we lived through.
Sometimes I think keueping them away from Docs and meds is a goodthing to do.