Confusion post illness

[Anonymous]

My mom has Parkisonsons and is fianlly home from a 3 week hospital stay. She is starting to recover physical but I am more concerned about cognitive decline. So much more confusion and dimentia. Will this recover too or is this the new normal? She is in rehab. Even rehab is asking us to get a private nurse to help with her care. Physically I think she can come home in the coming weeks, but mentally no.

[Anonymous]

Very common. It’s called hospital induced delirium. No one can say if it will go away or not. For many it does after days/weeks some take months. Others will never recover and this is their new normal.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3255198/

[Anonymous]

OP, is it possible the Parkinsons has advanced, and the issue she was hospitalized for was a precursor?

My dad, who has Parkinsons, was also hospitalized and then in rehab this summer, he had fallen 3 days in a row and the last one involved head vs. tile. He has defenitely cognitively declined a lot this summer, but I've been told that the falls were the precursor to the decline, rather than the decline being because of being hospitalized/rehab stay.

He's home now and honestly, still pretty confused. It's really not better, other than that he's not asking to go home like he was in rehab (despite it being explained every.time. that he would be leaving on Sept x...) I think it's the new normal. Is your mom getting her meds at the correct dose and time? That can make a difference for our parents with Parkinsons.

[Anonymous]

When my mom went into the hospital for a fall last spring the nurse told me that it takes 3 days to recover physically and cognitively for every one day they are in the hospital. It was pretty accurate. She was there for 4 days and it took about 2 weeks to get to our new normal. I’ve found that with cognition, that the baseline never improves, and that setbacks always erode it. I would giver her a few weeks at home to see if there is improvement and then make decisions from there.

[Anonymous]

I have an aunt who really didn't recover, but my mom did within a few days. it varies so much and there are probably many neurological factors involved we haven't even identified.