Hello again. :(

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
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Ireland
Trimethoprim is a good alternative to antibiotics, it doesn’t usually affect kidney function & is used to knock out folic acid for a 12 hour period - this stopping bacterial growth.
My son had a kidney condition from in utero so lots of experience of urine infections etcas he was on it for 7 years - he’s now 6 foot 2 inches of strapping young man ( IN AUSTRALIA!!)
Hope that Trimethoprim might be an option
We'll have to see. Mum is on so many different meds, and so they have to cross check everything.
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
A little update.
Mum's been in Rehab now for over a week, and doing very well. She's been having lots of physio and occupational therapy. Today, she finally had the "boot" removed, as her ankle has healed well. So, right now, intention is that, after a meeting with OT on Wednesday and a home visit, mum should be going home.

However. Yesterday, her urine test showed signs of a slight UTI! They are monitoring that.

Today, I had a call from her Dermatologist. They had had blood tests done on 4th September, and apparently only now had got the results. Mum's hemoglobin(sp?) had dropped from when she was admitted on 20th August. The reading was 8.6 on Sept. 4th. So, they were calling to say the tests needed to be repeated now, and see what's happening. The doctor I talked to said it's as if mum is losing blood somewhere. The Rehab place are going to repeat her bloods tomorrow.
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
Oh no! I hope they find out what is happening soon.
Me too, Canary. Me too. It's just hammered home to me that, slowly but surely, we are losing mum. I mean, she's 82 and has had life long heart issues, has a pacemaker, now "urine" issues, (they've been trying to decide if the bigger issue is her kidneys or bladder). But gradually, I can see her going down. It's inevitible, and I know that. However, I've spent the whole afternoon in tears. It seems as if accummulated loss is catching up on me, and also, I suppose, I've been run ragged between dau and her health/pregnancy problems and mum. Of course, I know that the weather has a significant affect on me, and today has been dark, grey and overcast. So, hopefully, I'll be more cheerful and a bit more positive tomorrow.
 

canary

Registered User
Feb 25, 2014
24,920
0
South coast
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Youve had a basinful over the years, without much break in between. It bound to catch up at times
 

padmag

Registered User
May 8, 2012
259
0
nottingham
Me too, Canary. Me too. It's just hammered home to me that, slowly but surely, we are losing mum. I mean, she's 82 and has had life long heart issues, has a pacemaker, now "urine" issues, (they've been trying to decide if the bigger issue is her kidneys or bladder). But gradually, I can see her going down. It's inevitible, and I know that. However, I've spent the whole afternoon in tears. It seems as if accummulated loss is catching up on me, and also, I suppose, I've been run ragged between dau and her health/pregnancy problems and mum. Of course, I know that the weather has a significant affect on me, and today has been dark, grey and overcast. So, hopefully, I'll be more cheerful and a bit more positive tomorrow.
I have followed your journey whilst you were caring for your husband and I'm sorry to hear you are suffering again, I know it's inevitable when we have elderly parents but how much can one person take? I hope things improve for your Mum and you. I have my Mum in care (she's 92) and Richard in respite/possible full time care right now I am very sad everyday.
 

DesperateofDevon

Registered User
Jul 7, 2019
3,274
0
A little update.
Mum's been in Rehab now for over a week, and doing very well. She's been having lots of physio and occupational therapy. Today, she finally had the "boot" removed, as her ankle has healed well. So, right now, intention is that, after a meeting with OT on Wednesday and a home visit, mum should be going home.

However. Yesterday, her urine test showed signs of a slight UTI! They are monitoring that.

Today, I had a call from her Dermatologist. They had had blood tests done on 4th September, and apparently only now had got the results. Mum's hemoglobin(sp?) had dropped from when she was admitted on 20th August. The reading was 8.6 on Sept. 4th. So, they were calling to say the tests needed to be repeated now, and see what's happening. The doctor I talked to said it's as if mum is losing blood somewhere. The Rehab place are going to repeat her bloods tomorrow.

(((((Hugs))))) & love xxx
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
I borrowed some old photo albums from mum's house. It's something I feel quite strongly about, that with everything just being stored on phones and digitally, precious memories will be lost to future generations. I've been printing my own family pics for a while now, and I've spent yesterday evening and this morning scanning in old photos, which I will have printed and put in albums. I've found some precious ones of my own dau when she was a child, as well as one beautiful, professional portrait of she and I when she was about 3. Going to save them all on my memory stick, and go get them printed.
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,356
0
Kent
I know how you feel @LadyA.

My mother had all my childhood photos as well as those of our grandparents and great-grandparents. She spoilt them when she had dementia by cutting them up and making Montages.

My grandmother had beautiful wedding photos and they were all lost.

My cousin has just found a photo of my great-grandmother, in her mother`s possessions after she died and sent it to me.
 

DesperateofDevon

Registered User
Jul 7, 2019
3,274
0
I know how you feel @LadyA.

My mother had all my childhood photos as well as those of our grandparents and great-grandparents. She spoilt them when she had dementia by cutting them up and making Montages.

My grandmother had beautiful wedding photos and they were all lost.

My cousin has just found a photo of my great-grandmother, in her mother`s possessions after she died and sent it to me.

My Mum has just rewritten history via the photograph album & removed me! Found ripped up photos beyond repair, ah well it’s just a photograph!
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
My Mum has just rewritten history via the photograph album & removed me! Found ripped up photos beyond repair, ah well it’s just a photograph!
It's hard though, isn't it?
What you said reminded me of something I came across in work, many years ago. I was dealing with some title deeds, and in the course of my searches, I came across a Will, in which a man had divided his property and assets between his children. The Will, after leaving substantial bequests to several people said "To my daughter ....., I leave the sum of one shilling in recognition of her mean and spiteful nature." I remarked on it to my boss, and he said "That was the daughter that never married, because her parents needed care. She spent her whole life taking care of them, until they both died. It's sometimes as difficult to receive care as it is to give it."
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
I'm off this morning to a meeting at the Rehab unit with the OT, and to then arrange a home visit, so she can see what's needed there.
The stairlift is being installed on Friday! Yay. I will be easier in my mind about mum going home if the lift is in, because I know mum well enough to know that she would be challenging herself to go upstairs!
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
The meeting yesterday went really well. There was the nurse who's over the Rehab ward, the physio, the OT, mum & me. They are really pleased with mum's progress, but were also careful about making sure she understood that from now on, she just cannot take risks like she had been. Mum has needed two crutches for several years, but she always refused to use two, and would stagger around unevenly, with just one crutch. They said she will be using a frame or two crutches. And they told her that going around the house with neither frame nor crutches is just not on. She's a very high falls risk, and shouldn't be taking the chance, as this time, she was very lucky. She might not be so lucky next time.

They had had mum in the OT gym yesterday morning. It's a fully functional kitchen, where patients can practise independent living skills, like filling a kettle and making tea, light cooking, doing laundry, taking things down (and putting back) items from kitchen cupboards, etc.

The nurse said they will be applying again for the two visits a week from a Care Assistant, but she said that reality is there are no hours available, and no funding, so mum will go on a waiting list which stretches to infinity! She also warned mum that she must under no circumstances be standing up in the bath to wash her hair! She must remain on the bath seat. "Otherwise" she said "We'd have to insist that you don't shower unless someone is in the bathroom with you." So, faced with that, mum agreed that she would not stand up! Doesn't seem to have occurred to mum, thankfully, that really, we would have no way of knowing whether she was standing up in the shower or not!

So, Tuesday next, we have a home visit from the OT, when I will collect mum and take her to her house, and the OT will come to see how she is at home, and advise on any other equipment she needs, and then they are aiming to discharge mum on Thursday or Friday next week.

TBH, this Rehab has been the best thing ever for mum. She has come on so much. She has had all the physio that she should have got six or seven years ago, when she broke her hip, but didn't. And they have given her exercises to do herself, which will help her with her balance and maintaining her mobility etc. Mentally, mum is back to where she was before she fell. If anything, she's a bit sharper than she had been! And her incontinence has improved beyond belief. So, all is looking good. :) Weirdly, it seems as if falling & breaking her ankle was the best thing that could have happened to mum!
 

DesperateofDevon

Registered User
Jul 7, 2019
3,274
0
The meeting yesterday went really well. There was the nurse who's over the Rehab ward, the physio, the OT, mum & me. They are really pleased with mum's progress, but were also careful about making sure she understood that from now on, she just cannot take risks like she had been. Mum has needed two crutches for several years, but she always refused to use two, and would stagger around unevenly, with just one crutch. They said she will be using a frame or two crutches. And they told her that going around the house with neither frame nor crutches is just not on. She's a very high falls risk, and shouldn't be taking the chance, as this time, she was very lucky. She might not be so lucky next time.

They had had mum in the OT gym yesterday morning. It's a fully functional kitchen, where patients can practise independent living skills, like filling a kettle and making tea, light cooking, doing laundry, taking things down (and putting back) items from kitchen cupboards, etc.

The nurse said they will be applying again for the two visits a week from a Care Assistant, but she said that reality is there are no hours available, and no funding, so mum will go on a waiting list which stretches to infinity! She also warned mum that she must under no circumstances be standing up in the bath to wash her hair! She must remain on the bath seat. "Otherwise" she said "We'd have to insist that you don't shower unless someone is in the bathroom with you." So, faced with that, mum agreed that she would not stand up! Doesn't seem to have occurred to mum, thankfully, that really, we would have no way of knowing whether she was standing up in the shower or not!

So, Tuesday next, we have a home visit from the OT, when I will collect mum and take her to her house, and the OT will come to see how she is at home, and advise on any other equipment she needs, and then they are aiming to discharge mum on Thursday or Friday next week.

TBH, this Rehab has been the best thing ever for mum. She has come on so much. She has had all the physio that she should have got six or seven years ago, when she broke her hip, but didn't. And they have given her exercises to do herself, which will help her with her balance and maintaining her mobility etc. Mentally, mum is back to where she was before she fell. If anything, she's a bit sharper than she had been! And her incontinence has improved beyond belief. So, all is looking good. :) Weirdly, it seems as if falling & breaking her ankle was the best thing that could have happened to mum!

Would she qualify for social services to fund some help?
 

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