Any one who has worked in the health care industry or has had a dementia patient at home knows how behaviors can literally change overnight when someone has an UTI. Almost any “challenging” behavior will be exaggerated or magnified greatly when someone has an UTI.
I had a recent personal experience that made me question my memory and what was happening to me. One morning I did three things that were very much out of character for me. The one that bothered me the most was that I had put my knee-high boots on the wrong feet. When I put my boot on my right foot it didn’t feel right, so I took it off and put it on again…. it still just didn’t feel comfortable to me. It wasn’t until an hour later that I looked down and realized that they were on the wrong feet. Boy did I feel stupid!!!! The other thing that made it strange was that the zipper on these boots is on the inside and that never clicked with me when I was putting them on the wrong feet.
Come to find out, I had UTI. All of a sudden everything fell into place. We do strange things when we have UTIs.
PWD (persons with dementia), and the elderly (65+ years of age), are very vulnerable to UTIs. If you suddenly see major changes in behavior by your loved one, perhaps he or she has an UTI and will need to be checked by a doctor.
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