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[quote=Anonymous]My 92yo mother had emergency abdominal surgery about 3 weeks ago. She came through the surgery great, and was alert, active, oriented, and moving well. She was discharged to a nursing home after a week in the hospital while she gained strength and her incision healed. About 5–6 days in, she complained about not feeling well, and then took a nosedive cognitively—confused, memory loss, generally disoriented. Basic labs (CBC, urinalysis) did not show infection. This was about a week ago. She physically feels better now, but mentally is still very confused, and aware that she is cognitively struggling.

The doctors at the nursing home have not shown a lot of curiosity about getting to the bottom of this, and seem to be writing her off because of her age. My siblings and I might have bought that if her decline was not so sudden: literally night and day. Nursing staff observed the same. Prior to this surgery, she had what I would characterize age-appropriate mental decline, but still lived independently, managed her own medications, etc. We are at a loss.

In our research, we came across Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction. This seems to describe what is happening to her, but a lot of the literature seems to focus on the version that is delirium in the days immediately after surgery, rather than the milder form with later onset.

Does anyone have experience with this?[/quote]

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