Just a "possible" heads up!!
My father was in the same boat, i.e.: Elderly (91 y/o), Type 2 diabetic and kept having some sort of systemic infection the doctors couldn't nail down. Three times in about six months he was found unconscious in his home. Hospitalized and had no memory of any of the events that put him there. Stubborn old coot that insisted on living alone. Mom passed about 12 years back.
Come to find out he
DOES have Dementia, something DW and I BOTH suspected about three years back, voiced our opinion, but were told by younger siblings who lived near him that we didn't know what we were talking about. Well guess what.....Father does have
Dementia...AND,
wasn't eating right,
wasn't taking his insulin as he should...AND WAS
REUSING INSULIN NEEDLES!! (Depression Era parent trying to save money!! Which nearly killed him!)
After
third hospitalization we put our foot down and younger siblings FINALLY woke up (in a good way)!
Dad could no long live alone. Has to be supervised and checked on regularly. We now have him in a REALLY NICE assisted living facility. He has his own studio apartment. Lives much closer to a family member (maybe 3 miles away) and hasn't had any repeat of above problems since the move. Unfortunately his Dementia has progressed to the later stages and there's nothing we can do about that.
But at least he's as safe as we can make him and hopefully we won't find him dead on the floor from lack of care. Oh and BTW, we got him one of those glucose monitor systems you wear and is linked to my brother and sister-in law's cellphones so Dad can be remotely monitored at all times and warnings are sent out if he starts to get out of balance.
Hope this helps. If she is reusing her insulin needles
she will get a blood infection. You can't rely on what she is saying to you. I would suggest you have her evaluated for Dementia and anything that might be related to memory loss. It can creep up on them without being overtly obvious, especially to people that see them frequently. The changes are slow and over time, so much that it's easily missed until it can't be missed.
BEST OF LUCK!!