Sorry you are having to go through all of this, Jerry.
Sounds similar to an episode my Mom went through last Spring while at 100 years old and still living at home she started displaying UTI behavior. Only it was worse than any we had seen before. We being myself and our caregiver.
Long story short, we took her to the local hospital ER and she was admitted. They kept her for a solid 5 days, the first 2 of which Mom was out of it mentally. Then all of a sudden her mind was back. In those first 3 days they had her on a IV of the strongest med available to combat a UTI. They also conducted all kinds of tests. In the end....they never could explain what had taken place to make her go "cray cray" like that. This after blood tests and everything.
We were able to move her from the hospital to a local Hospice facility where she stayed for another 5 days to continue recovery. They were fantastic there. The next step was getting her into a local ALF, which I was able to do. She's been there ever since and that was last April.
Her short term memory is not intact but long term not bad. She turns 101 on the 20th.
I see her twice a week and our caregiver twice a week. She gets Hospice 3x week for showering, etc. And a Hospice nurse visit every 2 weeks. The ALF is only a 6 bed and they do a great job there.
All this is covered by Medicare except rent for the ASF. She and her previous 2 husbands are military vets so there's survivor benefits coming in along with SS and also interest from an investment account which covers most of her rent expense so that's a big help.
You will have to work through Medicaid as you said and that's going to add more work for you, as you said.
The fact that you have a "better" case worker is a game changer. They are like the gate keeper in helping your Mom get the help she needs. As challenging as it is.....a longer stay in the hospital with full treatment for any possible UTI would be my recommendation. See if there's a Hospice care facility nearby too she could go to afterwards. They can give her sedatives to control some of her personality and anxiety issues. That is normally covered by Medicare, I believe.
Mom has Tricare too but I'm not sure we needed that for anything other than the meds she was taking...but I could be wrong.
Back to the UTI issue.....Hospice told me they could put Mom on a prevent program where she gets a med every day. I also provide the AZO brand cranberry supplements for her to take daily. The bathing/showering regime also has helped. When she was still living at home I know she wasn't as diligent as she needed to be in changing out her pull ups. Gotta keep it all sanitary down there!
Best of luck to you and your Mom.....
Here's a pic of Mom from my visit yesterday.
