Amy in the US
Registered User
Marcelle, no need to reply, but wanted to say hello and thinking of you and your mum today.
Marcelle, no need to reply, but wanted to say hello and thinking of you and your mum today.
Hi Marcelle, it is good to hear your mum is improving.
As to fixed visitting hours, enquire at the hospital for a carer's pass. This exempts you from the restrictions and enables you to visit at any time. It is a matter of inidivual hospital policy, but most hospitals offer one. In any case, simply asking for permission with the Ward Sister can be enough. The only wards that strictly enforce visitting rules are ones like infection isolation, or a ward where patients with mental health issues find visitors disturbing.
It is also normal for wards to block access during the mid-day mealtimes.
When my mum was in hospital recently for surgery I was able to visit more or less at any time, I could have had but did not need a carers pass. Many hospitals allow a designated primary carer to come into hospital and do some forms of care, such as helping with washing, eating etc, basically anything non-medical.
How is your Mum doing Marcelle, and how are you?
Thinking of you.
When you say "thickened foods" do you mean a pureed diet? My mother too, in hospital, was not keen on the food in mashed form in various colours on the plate. I bought a Nutribullet and blended bananas and custard for her which she enjoyed. My Mum had lost a lot of weight and had aspiration pneumonia so, sadly, she didn't last long after leaving hospital. I was given a leaflet by the SALT team on which foods she could have in processed form and the powder to put in drinks to thicken them. They told me incorrectly in hospital to just put a spoonful in a cup but the instructions on the powder were so many spoonsful per mg. so what they told me was way under.
I wished I had been given proper instructions as I was in a panic when she was discharged as to what I could give her. I couldn't see the SALT team personally although I kept asking. Make sure you are given proper instructions about what and how to feed her. Get a SALT referral as soon as she comes out of hospital.
There are lots of foods to avoid which I would have thought suitable, like ice cream and jelly. It all depends on whether they turn into liquids in the mouth or not.
Thank you for your post, nita.
The food is pureed, and the liquids all have a thickening powder stirred into them - even cups of tea - which makes them of a gluey or jelly-like consistency, so Mum doesn't really think of them as drinks. She is not allowed to have plain water or juice - it all has to have 'thick and easy' stirred into it. Sometimes the 'fluid' actually stiffens up when Mum doesn't drink it so in the end it becomes immovable and has to be spooned into her. She doesn't have any understanding of illness at all, and she was used in the care home to eating a normal diet, so she just can't cope with it.
However, I can see that if the medical authorities prescribe the 'thickened fluid' diet for fear of more aspiration pneumonia the carers at the care home can't be expected to go against that. I do think it would be a good idea to have a speech therapist look at Mum once she's back in the home - at present it seems doubtful that Mum will see the SaLT team again before leaving hospital. Maybe we might even have to 'go private' - I don't know - but I completely take your point that the details of this way of eating and drinking must be gone into carefully.
It isn't a nursing home, but they do have residents on the thickened fluid diet, as I was talking to a team leader, reporting back to her on the day Mum went into hospital. The team leader said she hated the thickened fluid diet and so did the people who were on it - but I expect they administer it correctly. They are good people. My worry is more that Mum will be upset and agitated about it - she is a very strong-willed person, particularly when it comes to food, and that will spoil her contentment as well as the dehydration putting her health at risk.
So far in hospital Mum seems to leave the thickened tea & just doesn't take to it at all. She does a little better with fruit 'drinks'. But she isn't drinking enough for someone of her size.
If you were looking after your Mum at home and having to administer this diet, no wonder you were worried. I would be too - it is a huge responsibility. Thank you for sharing your experience with me.
Best wishes,
Marcelle