When younger, a UTI’s symptoms might include the classic burning sensation while urinating, along with fevers and such in severe cases but, this doesn't happen with the elderly population where, not only is it prevalent, it remains undetected for a number of reasons. Instead, the symptoms in that population are anxiety, depression, cold chills and, sometimes, even restless leg, like our loved one who, sleeping in two-hour spurts, had been unable to sit still for more than a minute without literally jumping out of her skin for the last two weeks. Add cognitive impairment with considerable confusion caused by the infection into the mix, and they really can't even tell you what's wrong.
So miserable she sobbed as the all-knowing, do-nothing nursing home “medical team” were too busy bean counting with one hand while CYA’g with the other, I wasn't having it anymore and finally said 🖕, I got this. "Oh, but you…", the administrator said. Oh, but, you’d better get the @!$# outta my way, before I lose my cool, up in here! And off we went to the nearest urgent care facility. Lifting my 140 lb. mom from the ground into my full-size SUV numerous times after missing the morning cut-off, we literally waited all day to find, she had a severe one that persisted after being treated with a shot of Rocefin in the emergency room and a script for the home, which its licensed professionals changed because, all-knowing.
If you don't know, under attack from bacteria, the bladder bleeds into the urethra and the white blood cell count skyrockets as the body does what it does best in most of us, fight infections, and even blood glucose levels skyrocket in chronic diabetics, yet another risk factor, which the trained professionals attributed to…ketoacidosis!
Killing 6% of the elderly when our (better than vaccines :) ) immune system loses the battle, UTI’s even have the tendency to cause irreversible delirium in 20%+ of those that recover from them which means, maybe it’s not just dementia you’re noticing but, the writer is no doctor so, what does he know?
If you don’t know, ask somebody, but don't ask your aging parent or grandparent if it burns when they pee. The answer will likely be no. Instead, making sure they drink lots of fluids, we must ask them a lot of questions about HOW THEY FEEL to #mindyourlovedones at all costs.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9827929