Hi everyone, so we heard on Wednesday that mum might be discharged and allowed to go back home today after spending the last 4 weeks in hospital. Long story short, we pushed for her to be admitted due to suspecting she was suffering confusion linked new medication she was taking, but she’ll be leaving with a diagnosis of Dementia :-( It’s all happened very quickly it seems and we’re getting our heads around it best we can.
Anyway, unfortunately she won’t be going home today after all - not sure of specifics, but the Consultant Psychiatrist apparently said he wants her in there for another few days at least. Mum will be very disappointed but if they think she needs to stay there a bit longer, then it must be important.
In the meantime, the care services have been amazing. Mum has had a personal alarm installed at home, railings fitted, a banister build by a carpenter, and things like frames around her toilets to make it easier. They’re also releasing her with a good care package - 4 visits a day initially, to be assessed over time. I live 400 miles from mum, and my brother is about half an hour away. So although he can visit, he can’t ‘be on hand’, and the knowledge that she’ll have 4 visits a day is extremely comforting.
The Occ Health person at the hospital has said she’s happy for mum to make cups of tea/coffee and perhaps toast, but that she definitely shouldn’t be cooking. So I’m going to look into meal delivery services today -***** seem to be the provider in Glasgow. I’ve read some posts on here about them, and they sound pretty good. It’ll be pricey I guess, but mum has a decent income and can cover eventually (we’ll do it at first until we have formal access to her finances).
If anyone has any advice around how to manage the whole ‘don’t let her cook by herself‘ thing, I’d love to hear it. Questions I have are along the lines of: How do we STOP her cooking? Should we switch off the gas? Perhaps a note on the cooker to remind her not to use it? Will she be able to reheat meals (poss not) ? Will the delivery people actually bring the meal into the house or just leave it at doorstep? Argh the possible complications seem endless!
Sorry for length of the message but it really helps to talk about it all here. We haven’t told many people about specifics re mum, as we want to try and ask her what she wants to tell people. And of the few friends I’ve told, none have experience of caring for a PWD.
Thanks in advance
Anyway, unfortunately she won’t be going home today after all - not sure of specifics, but the Consultant Psychiatrist apparently said he wants her in there for another few days at least. Mum will be very disappointed but if they think she needs to stay there a bit longer, then it must be important.
In the meantime, the care services have been amazing. Mum has had a personal alarm installed at home, railings fitted, a banister build by a carpenter, and things like frames around her toilets to make it easier. They’re also releasing her with a good care package - 4 visits a day initially, to be assessed over time. I live 400 miles from mum, and my brother is about half an hour away. So although he can visit, he can’t ‘be on hand’, and the knowledge that she’ll have 4 visits a day is extremely comforting.
The Occ Health person at the hospital has said she’s happy for mum to make cups of tea/coffee and perhaps toast, but that she definitely shouldn’t be cooking. So I’m going to look into meal delivery services today -***** seem to be the provider in Glasgow. I’ve read some posts on here about them, and they sound pretty good. It’ll be pricey I guess, but mum has a decent income and can cover eventually (we’ll do it at first until we have formal access to her finances).
If anyone has any advice around how to manage the whole ‘don’t let her cook by herself‘ thing, I’d love to hear it. Questions I have are along the lines of: How do we STOP her cooking? Should we switch off the gas? Perhaps a note on the cooker to remind her not to use it? Will she be able to reheat meals (poss not) ? Will the delivery people actually bring the meal into the house or just leave it at doorstep? Argh the possible complications seem endless!
Sorry for length of the message but it really helps to talk about it all here. We haven’t told many people about specifics re mum, as we want to try and ask her what she wants to tell people. And of the few friends I’ve told, none have experience of caring for a PWD.
Thanks in advance