Pneumonia in the elderly

FIL has had a cold for over a week but the caretakers at the group home he is in had called me stating that his cough was getting worse. I called his doctor and got him an appointment for Friday along with one for MIL whose sleeplessness and anxiety had resulted in numerous phone calls to us the past 3 days. The doctor changed around MIL's medications and had us take FIL to the hospital for a chest xray and blood work. Chest x-ray confirmed FIL had pneumonia. So since the doctor considered him stable, he was allowed to return back to his group home with heavy antibiotics and nebulizer treatments. He was happy. So were we because this was his first time out of the home and we didn't quite know how he would react to being taken back. But we had no problems at all with him. Quite a difference from a few weeks ago.

So the kids came and we took MIL to dinner then the kids left and hubs and I took MIL home and went over her bills and I rewrote out her medication list. I should have looked at said list BEFORE she went to the doctor because she wasn't taking one of the medicines all week and only half the other one. That was why she wasn't sleeping and was so anxious. We straightened her out and figured out she had overpaid a few doctors so I will be getting her money back from them.

Today we went back over to check on both. FIL is doing a bit better - his cough is more moist and although he isn't coughing anything up, it is looser. He said he felt better and the caretakers said he has been eating better. Hubs and I got MIL 4 - one week pill containers with 4 boxes per day (morning, noon, supper, night). I set up MIL's medicines for the next 4 weeks. MIL has been sleeping and seems calmer. So for this day, maybe we will be able to get some sleep without worrying about them.

I will probably be back there within a day or two keeping on eye on FIL.

Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death in the elderly. The reasons are simple actually - they are usually frailer, have a lot of other diseases like diabetes, heart problems, malignancy, weaker immune systems, diminished lung capacity due to age, and even dementia. FIL's health was at least better than a month ago. He has even gained 7 pounds. He is eating better and getting more exercise and better care. But the elderly with any other disease are more likely to develop complications.

It is also harder to recognize pneumonia in the elderly because of the following reasons:
1. only half of the elderly run a fever
2. only a few have any respiratory symptoms (cough, sputum production, difficulty breathing)
3. their only symptom might only be a sudden onset of mental status changes such as confusion
4. they might show also only show a rapid heart rate or rapid respiratory rate.

FIL had a simple cold that within a week went into pneumonia. One could actually hear the rattling in his chest and at least his chest x-ray showed it. Most times that doesn't happen. Hopefully we caught it in time.