Fever with delirium in older man

[Anonymous]

My dad is 76 and for the past six months has had intermittent high fevers. I suspect that my dad has dramatically minimized this to his doctor. He saw his GP and at first the GP said just to wait; a few months later he referred my dad to some specialists, who found he was anemic and had low white blood cell count and might have unidentified internal bleeding. The last few days my dad has had high fevers with delirium; he doesn’t know where he is or what’s going on.

My mom, like my dad, tends to minimize all health problems and has even said that she “doesn’t believe in doctors.” So they aren’t taking him to see a doctor until his follow up appointment with his GP in about a month.

How concerned would you be, if you were me? Fevers with delusion seem bad to me.

[Anonymous]

Check for a UTI

[Anonymous]

My Dad was hospitalized for high fevers when he started getting delirious. First check for UTI. Then check to see if any of his medications have a rare side effect of high fevers.
After over a week in the hospital, massive amounts of antibiotics even though he didn’t have an indication of infection, one of the doctors went through his medications and discovered one of them had a rate side effect of high fever. Once they stopped it, the fever was gone.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I’ll add that the actually does have recurring UTIs and he never takes antibiotics for them. He saw a urologist but prefers to “fight the infection” on his own rather than with drugs. Sigh.

Checking his other meds is a good suggestion though unfortunately he doesn’t want my involvement (out of pride) and my mom doesn’t do anything either. So really I’m trying to ask anonymous strangers whether they think he’s just going to die because he’s failing to seek any medical care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check for a UTI

+1 elderly people don't feel UTIs the way younger folks do, and they notoriously lead to temporary delirium. An antibiotic will clear that right up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check for a UTI

+1 elderly people don't feel UTIs the way younger folks do, and they notoriously lead to temporary delirium. An antibiotic will clear that right up.

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/unlocking-the-cause-of-uti-induced-delirium/

Related article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check for a UTI

+1 elderly people don't feel UTIs the way younger folks do, and they notoriously lead to temporary delirium. An antibiotic will clear that right up.

OP here. And if a person refuses antibiotics? Because they refuse to see a doctor?

[Anonymous]

Infection is what came to mind from experience with my parents. For one they had a both a UTI and Osteomyelitis which went undetected and intreated for way too long. Sepsis hit and things got scary for awhile. Months in the hospital.

[Anonymous]

My mom came home from the hospital where she was catheterized and developed a UTI a day later. They told us to be on the lookout so I was hyper aware. I was shocked how quickly delirium set in. Even before the fever, she lost all sense of reality. I called it in and got a prescription for antibiotics and she was back to normal within a day or two.

Who manages your dad’s pills? Are you local? I put everything in my mom’s AM/PM pill box and she just takes what is there. Can you visit weekly to manage that? Or have someone do I for him?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check for a UTI

+1 elderly people don't feel UTIs the way younger folks do, and they notoriously lead to temporary delirium. An antibiotic will clear that right up.

OP here. And if a person refuses antibiotics? Because they refuse to see a doctor?

OP, beware-it can go into sepsis quickly! Do you have POA over him? He sounds like he might have mental decline.

[Anonymous]

This happened to my dad after covid. It went on for months and we assumed long covid. It was quite debilitating. He ended up in the hospital for something else and go iv antibiotics. The fevers stopped! It’s a been a few months now, and he’s like a new person. We really thought it was the end of it for him. So maybe there is something to the uti theory. They never found out what was causing the fevers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’ll add that the actually does have recurring UTIs and he never takes antibiotics for them. He saw a urologist but prefers to “fight the infection” on his own rather than with drugs. Sigh.

Checking his other meds is a good suggestion though unfortunately he doesn’t want my involvement (out of pride) and my mom doesn’t do anything either. So really I’m trying to ask anonymous strangers whether they think he’s just going to die because he’s failing to seek any medical care.

So sorry, but yes, an untreated infection will eventually kill him.

[Anonymous]

Can you just convince him to go to the doctor for a physical or flu shot, or ???? anything just to get him there. Can he go to bring your mom (just to get him there)?

[Anonymous]

If he has mental status changes someone should really take him to the emergency department for an eval. Infectious causes - like UTI as mentioned by others- are common causes and can be cleared up easily. maybe tell your mom that if he's delirious he's at risk of hurting himself (falls, etc.) or the problem is just going to get worse and lead to major complications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dad is 76 and for the past six months has had intermittent high fevers. I suspect that my dad has dramatically minimized this to his doctor. He saw his GP and at first the GP said just to wait; a few months later he referred my dad to some specialists, who found he was anemic and had low white blood cell count and might have unidentified internal bleeding. The last few days my dad has had high fevers with delirium; he doesn’t know where he is or what’s going on.

My mom, like my dad, tends to minimize all health problems and has even said that she “doesn’t believe in doctors.” So they aren’t taking him to see a doctor until his follow up appointment with his GP in about a month.

How concerned would you be, if you were me? Fevers with delusion seem bad to me.

OP-both my parents have had this and it was UTI's. Sepsis is a danger at this point-if he has a high fever it's time for a 911 call! Have him brought in-he needs that, it is a life endangering event at that point.