> no health care professional ever suggested it might be infections
Acutely altered mental status (without specific findings suggestive of a stroke) is, first and foremost, assumed to be a metabolic issue. I've been a practicing doctor for twenty years and it wasn't a new thought at the time. I don't know why nobody suggested it to you. It's been basic understanding for, well, ages.
Even more amazing, is one of our friends is a doctor (general practitioner) and she never suggested it. Though she did say old people tend to just develop dementia and it's probably that (my gran lived to 97). It's the coming and going nature of it that no one seemed to pay attention to.
Acutely altered mental status (without specific findings suggestive of a stroke) is, first and foremost, assumed to be a metabolic issue. I've been a practicing doctor for twenty years and it wasn't a new thought at the time. I don't know why nobody suggested it to you. It's been basic understanding for, well, ages.