Angry with s/s and hospital staff..

[danielle]

I posted earlier re uncle tom's re-occurring chest infections and the faliure of acnowledgement by s/s.
Sorry but i still have a bee in my bonnet over this. I really cant belive s/s can be so laid back when they know this is apparantly a BIG prob which hinders assesments. I cant understand why staff on the ward fail to pass information on to s/s when a patient is showing signs of improvement ?
Am i missing something.....
Also i was wondering...
if a person has been diagnosed with vascular dimentia how do they go from sleeping all the time to wandering, confused and agressive to calm, settled and being able to have a "sort of" normal conversation
well i say normal....
uncle tom was talking well... but he was in the past all the time. But he could remember things i had forgotton about.
Does something or someone trigger the agressive streak or is it just part and parcel of the illness.
Do people without chest infections have exactly the same symptoms or is the rapid change due to infections.
I have been on various websites and wish i hadnt bothered.. all conflicting info signs & symptoms etc......
Sorry to sound thick.
Danni x

 

[Brucie]

Hi Danni

you don't sound at all thick, the nature of dementia is confusing for everyone.

The whole system of health and SS is not one that is holistic. Different departments, different organisations, and only contact when something stimulates that. They don't automatically update each other on anything. [after all that would mean they were inviting extra work]

Regarding the changes in your uncle - well, that's dementia, and that is why we always say day by day. Things can change hour by hour in fact. Don't forget the brain is in operation 24/7 for as long as we live and it controls everything we do. That's daunting enough when it is perfect, but when it is losing bits continually, then it will try to manage. Problem is the brain handles many tasks at once, and the fact that one task is hitting problems - say, is unable to make sensible speech that others can understand - then another part may get activated and make the person angry. Or the person may realise what is happening and get confused, then angry. Or... or... or...

Bur sometimes when not to many things are happening to make the brain uneasy, the person may appear normal.

Overall, chest and other infections can cause changes in the person, generally for the worse; Medication can also do that. And of course with infections, the normal thing is to provide yet more medication, so the thing cycles.

I had a discussion with my wife's doctor yesterday: Jan has had a bladder infection and a cold, and was on antibiotics for the infection. This has now cleared up, but she is left with a full chest. The doctor said she didn't want to give Jan more antibiotics to clear that because of interactions with her other medications, because of her using too many medications and their effectiveness being lost, and because the antibiotics can cause thrush, which would be much more uncomfortable as well. I told the doctor that I felt Jan's chest will clear of its own accord and not to give more medications. Jan has a very sensible doctor at her home. The point is,there are all sorts of things to be weighed up!

 

[daughter]

Hi Danni,

I get confused with the term 'assessment' but I believe that there are two of them - one by the hospital to determine how to treat the patient and the other by S/S regarding whether they, or the NHS, should fund care after a hospital stay.

I hope anyone will feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!

My Dad had gone into hospital to be (hospital) assessed because he'd been aggressive at his nursing home and when his medication was changed he became calmer within a week. We had to wait another four weeks before he came out. Any minute we felt he would suddenly revert to the aggression again and be stuck in there forever.

My Dad's doctor said he could leave hospital at the CPA? meeting so then we were waiting for theS/S's assessment. My sister gave a stern lecture down the phone to the S/S to get them moving as we were worried that Mum was going to have a nervous breakdown with the wait. We questioned why the assessment could not be done back at the Home.

Finally, this is how it went, the S/S's assessment was done when Dad was back in the Home. The bad news was that if Dad became aggressive once more, it could happen all over again.

It's so easy to get confused and frustrated with all the rigmarole and jargon just at a time when you are trying to cope with all your feelings about your relative and their illness.

My Dad has AD but he has also gone 'from sleeping all the time to wandering, confused and agressive to calm, settled and being able to have a "sort of" normal conversation'. I still don't know if it's the medication or the disease or a mixture of both that triggers any of the moods and I've a feeling that no one else knows either! I do know it certainly makes me appreciate the 'calm, settled' times.