General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHospital Delirium: Cognitive Decline After Hospitalization
Why are some elders subject to returning home from a hospitalization cognitively worse? Experts are studying this problem with varying results, but many agree that there are multiple conditions at play which can result in an elderly person suffering cognitive decline after a hospitalization. Although there is no conclusive evidence that a hospitalization can lead to dementia, the medical community calls the condition "hospital delirium," a condition that the American Geriatrics Society estimates affects about one-third of patients over 70, particularly those who are in intensive care or who undergo surgery.
https://www.agingcare.com/articles/cognitive-decline-after-hospital-stay-147836.htm
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)It was totally surreal, full of crazy dreams and my resistance to them. I actually wrote the dreams up after I recovered and going back through them is quite an experience. I still remember all of them...probably 15 or so different scenarios.
As it turned out, I was overloaded with pain killers of one type or another. Having 5 different doctors didn't help. They were all trying to help me and should have checked the records more closely before they prescribed anything. It was so bad, the family began discussing funeral arrangements...trying to figure out what I would want.
I remember hearing their voices and we even took "trips" together to hunt for a beautiful porcelain dining room dinner service. (If you have to go through it, you might as well try to guide your dreams in areas of interest.)
The craziest dream(s) were when I was trying to see if my family members were out searching for me. I had been "taken" to an automotive facility with a repair garage at the back. There were others standing in the garage, but they wouldn't talk to anyone. We just stood and waited. I looked out the windows to see if my kids were searching for me. I finally realized our bodies were being harvested for meat for sale. Somehow, I was saved from that and taken to a facility where my blood was enriched and they sold it to other hospitals for profit.
I finally came out of the dream world and rejoined the real world. This was 3 years ago.
Several weeks later, my daughter was talking to a friend who told her that her mother had been hospitalized and had these crazy dreams about the hospital harvesting her body. Go figure. She had no idea what I had just experienced.
Never think the mind isn't capable. I'm sure I have totally recovered...at least no one is telling me otherwise...yet.