My 89 year old mother has had bronchitis for about 2 1/2 weeks. She was receiving antibiotic and steroid IV treatments and breathing treatments -twice a day for three days- as an out patient. Once she finished these up she seemed to be a lot better. That lasted about one day. Then she relapsed. She feels" lousy" and sleeps constantly . She isn't having any trouble breathing and isn't running a temp. I called her doctor and was told to give her oral antibiotics. That was 5 days ago. So far there is no improvement. Is this normal for her age? Is there something else I should be doing for her? We try to make sure she drinks plenty of fluids -not an easy thing to do- and eats something- again not easy.
I don't know where you live but if it is somewhere cold, call an ambulance. It is too much to expect her to get dressed and travel in a car. Arriving by ambulance usually means you get seen faster and don't have to sit around waiting for hours. i am afraid you may have to be quite pushy to get proper care.
2 1/2 weeks in general is not too long to have bronchitis and in the very elderly it takes much longer to recover from anything. Did they X-ray or do a CT scan to make sure she does not have pneumonia?
I think I would take her to a specialist and get a second opinion. There might be something else wrong that is causing the problem. As always, be sure to check for UTI. The antibiotic for the bronchial problems might not help the UTI.