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What Causes Difficulty In Finding Words And Nausea In A 82 Year Old?
My 82 year old mother has been nauseous, with two episodes of emetics. She has a low grade fever, is very sleepy and now can t seem to find her words. It s there, but she can t seem to speak them. She is not having pain or tingling on either side of her body, and her face is fine
Mon, 28 Nov 2016
Hi there,
It appears to me as though your mother is suffering some sort of occult infection, which means that we know that there is an infection, but the source is not obvious. At her age, a low grade fever is significant, because sometimes they do not even develop a fever. The two most common sources of infection for her age group are pneumonia, especially if she is not very mobile, or a urine infection, which she may not have noticed.
The fact that she is nauseous and getting excessively drowsy is a worrying sign of possible sepsis, and I would advise you to bring her to an emergency room for them to investigate the source of infection. There they can perform an X-ray to check for pneumonia, a urine test to look for infection, and also run some blood tests to look at her sugar levels, blood counts, and kidney function. They will probably require her to stay in the hospital for a few days until she regains her normal level of alertness and speech.
Don't wait any longer.
Hope this helps, and all the best to you and your mother.
Regards,
Dr. Teh
It appears to me as though your mother is suffering some sort of occult infection, which means that we know that there is an infection, but the source is not obvious. At her age, a low grade fever is significant, because sometimes they do not even develop a fever. The two most common sources of infection for her age group are pneumonia, especially if she is not very mobile, or a urine infection, which she may not have noticed.
The fact that she is nauseous and getting excessively drowsy is a worrying sign of possible sepsis, and I would advise you to bring her to an emergency room for them to investigate the source of infection. There they can perform an X-ray to check for pneumonia, a urine test to look for infection, and also run some blood tests to look at her sugar levels, blood counts, and kidney function. They will probably require her to stay in the hospital for a few days until she regains her normal level of alertness and speech.
Don't wait any longer.
Hope this helps, and all the best to you and your mother.
Regards,
Dr. Teh
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