Dramatic cognitive decline after hospitalization. Thoughts?

Hospital delirium is real...........I witnessed it in both parents during and after a hospitalization & rehab stay. My mother was seeing mice crawling on the floor and trying to pack her things up into the little paper pouch the silverware comes in on the food tray! The delirium worsens in the evenings, Sundowning, as you may see, and gets better in the morning hours. For my folks, it lasted for the entire duration of the rehab stays but DID get better and vanish when they went back to their normal environment. My father had no dementia at play (normally), but my mother was in the later early stages of dementia herself the last time she went to rehab. She got back to her baseline self within a week of getting back to her apartment at the Memory Care ALF.

My father was so bad with his hospital delirium that my daughter slept in his room during his entire stay so that every time he woke up agitated, she was there to calm him down!

All the changes, new meds, the illness itself and the hospital/rehab environment contribute to the delirium these seniors experience, and it's a terrible thing to witness!

Wishing you the best of luck dealing with a difficult situation.

Could be multiple things given his health but when I first read your post the thing that came to my mind was he has been moved around a lot in a short period of time --moving from his home to assisted living to hospital to rehab -- that's a lot to deal with. If he had any anesthesia while in the hospital that could be impacting the situation. If the rehab facility has a social worker, you might talk to that person and see what insight they might have. If you know the drugs he has been given, check to see what the side effects are and if there are any bad reactions to the combination of drugs. Not an easy situation for you or your Dad.

Every hospitalization without exception with my elderly dad brought with it a new, lower level of function. A change in routine, not moving around, less social interaction, med changes, the list is long, all can contribute to a marked decline, and it really doesn’t take long. I’ve come to view many hospitalizations to be the enemy of older seniors, but our medical community is geared to treat everything even conditions that won’t improve. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this and hope things look up

Your Dad could have been in early stages of Dementia. The move to the AL, hospital visit and now Rehab could cause a further decline. People suffering from a Dementia like familiarity. Your Dad has had a lot of changes. There is something called "hospital delirium". Dad may have that.

You need to get the doctors to listen to you. Keep saying this is new. Ask for a Neurological consult.