Hi All,
I posted a couple of weeks ago about my aunt who has early dementia and since then I have been on holiday (Scotland was cold but lovely!) which gave me much needed rest, I am glad to say.
So now I'm back and was rather dismayed to discover that no one else from my family bothered to visit my aunt in hospital while I was away (she has been there three weeks now since a fall).
More frustratingly, I spoke to the care manager this week who advised that they can't even give me a date when my Aunt could come home because they can't get any carers to provide the 4 times a day help she has been assessed as needing.
So that was a bit disappointing but my partner and I went to visit her on Tuesday and were pleasantly surprised to see she seemed not too bad, not too confused and just really wanting to come home. She seemed to have a bit of energy about her.
Went yesterday and found her with the biggest black eye I have ever seen (she looked like she had been beaten up). Nurse reassured me that it looked worse than it is but she had got up in the night and they found her lying in the bathroom. My aunt remembers nothing of this. It's her third fall in three weeks and we came away more worried because we know that now (as opposed to 3 weeks ago) she is eating and drinking, taking pills and has put on a little weight. She was the most confused I had seen her last night (trying to get her to put some clothing in a bag was 20 minutes of comic farce!). Like one of the other posts I read today - I seem to veer from thinking I have imagined all this and she is really not too bad to being really concerned about what happens next time she falls.
My intention at the start of this post was to ask - anyone have experience of how to cope with what is effectively a case of bed blocking? i.e. physically the hospital say she can go home, social services say yes, once they get care but can't say when and one very frustrated aunt who just keeps asking me why she can't go home. Also - how long realistically could this go on? I have something in my head about six weeks being a limit on intermediate care but may have picked that up incorrectly from what info I have read.
Best wishes to all
I posted a couple of weeks ago about my aunt who has early dementia and since then I have been on holiday (Scotland was cold but lovely!) which gave me much needed rest, I am glad to say.
So now I'm back and was rather dismayed to discover that no one else from my family bothered to visit my aunt in hospital while I was away (she has been there three weeks now since a fall).
More frustratingly, I spoke to the care manager this week who advised that they can't even give me a date when my Aunt could come home because they can't get any carers to provide the 4 times a day help she has been assessed as needing.
So that was a bit disappointing but my partner and I went to visit her on Tuesday and were pleasantly surprised to see she seemed not too bad, not too confused and just really wanting to come home. She seemed to have a bit of energy about her.
Went yesterday and found her with the biggest black eye I have ever seen (she looked like she had been beaten up). Nurse reassured me that it looked worse than it is but she had got up in the night and they found her lying in the bathroom. My aunt remembers nothing of this. It's her third fall in three weeks and we came away more worried because we know that now (as opposed to 3 weeks ago) she is eating and drinking, taking pills and has put on a little weight. She was the most confused I had seen her last night (trying to get her to put some clothing in a bag was 20 minutes of comic farce!). Like one of the other posts I read today - I seem to veer from thinking I have imagined all this and she is really not too bad to being really concerned about what happens next time she falls.
My intention at the start of this post was to ask - anyone have experience of how to cope with what is effectively a case of bed blocking? i.e. physically the hospital say she can go home, social services say yes, once they get care but can't say when and one very frustrated aunt who just keeps asking me why she can't go home. Also - how long realistically could this go on? I have something in my head about six weeks being a limit on intermediate care but may have picked that up incorrectly from what info I have read.
Best wishes to all