Dr. Tyna Moore

And I will tell you this, dehydration can kill very, very quickly.

And when I think of elderly folks and chronic diarrhea or some kind of acute diarrhea episode, or maybe running out of both ends, the vomiting, you get a 24-hour bug, whereas my husband and I can just barrel through it.

My daughter can barrel through it.

It kills young people and it kills old people in particular.

I would say old people faster, of course, because their reserves are much lower.

They don't have as many active stem cells.

They don't have the healing benefits of youth.

But in either case, both can decompensate very, very, very quickly.

And we don't see it.

And then the poor person is in bad, bad shape.

So I was not identifying over the phone the dehydration in my mom.

But one of the first symptoms for her was dry mouth.

And this was going on for a few days.

When you and I think of dehydration, I want you to think chapped lips, dry mouth.

Now, her mouth was so dry, she was having a hard time articulating.

And I kept saying, what's wrong with your mouth?

And I thought maybe she was swollen because she was dealing with an upper respiratory infection at the same time.

It was hard to tell over the phone.

You might test the back of the hand, the skin.

You would pinch it and it would tent.