Hi All,
I'm having the most awful time with my mum.
Her cataract op was 3 1/2 weeks ago. Surgery was complicated due to her having small pupils but apparently successful. We were given eye drops to use for 4 weeks, 4 times per day.
I thought I would never manage the eye drops, but in fact my mum learnt to do them herself. She is an ex-contact lens user, so probably has some memory of dealing with this sort of stuff. The district nurses came twice per day on the days I work and I supervised the other times (which restricted my options a bit, but manageable).
Last week we went back for the post op assessment.
I was worried because she said she couldn't see much, but I thought she'd probably just forgotten how poor her sight was in that eye.
However the surgeon said it's not healing properly and that sometimes the eyedrops can attack the surface of the eye, so he prescribed ointment instead and we're going back on Thursday to see if it's improved.
But I can't get the ointment in. I'm really squeamish about eyes and just can't look. This sounds pathetic even to me, but I really can't do it. And my mum just keeps missing her eye. We're probably going to run out of ointment because so much ends up in the wrong place. The nurses are still doing 2 visits 3x per week and my dear OH has done a few visits, but he has a busy job and can't do all of it. And when I do it, not only do we often fail but my mum gets really angry at my incompetence and it's messing up her compliance with me in other things, which is always a bit fragile and really important as I do so much for her.
What can I do? I asked her carer who comes once per week to take her to the hairdresser and clean if she could do it but the company she works for has a minimum visit time of 1 hours, so it would be bank-breaking to pay her for 4 visits a day.
The district nurses won't come when I'm available.
I suppose I have to lurch on till Thursday, but what if she needs to stay on the ointment? I want it to have worked because I want her eye to heal, but I also don't want it to because I can't face the battles going on.
Part of me feels like I need her to go to a CH, but this is presumably a short term problem and not really a valid reason for her to lose her home when otherwise we manage pretty well.
I'm having the most awful time with my mum.
Her cataract op was 3 1/2 weeks ago. Surgery was complicated due to her having small pupils but apparently successful. We were given eye drops to use for 4 weeks, 4 times per day.
I thought I would never manage the eye drops, but in fact my mum learnt to do them herself. She is an ex-contact lens user, so probably has some memory of dealing with this sort of stuff. The district nurses came twice per day on the days I work and I supervised the other times (which restricted my options a bit, but manageable).
Last week we went back for the post op assessment.
I was worried because she said she couldn't see much, but I thought she'd probably just forgotten how poor her sight was in that eye.
However the surgeon said it's not healing properly and that sometimes the eyedrops can attack the surface of the eye, so he prescribed ointment instead and we're going back on Thursday to see if it's improved.
But I can't get the ointment in. I'm really squeamish about eyes and just can't look. This sounds pathetic even to me, but I really can't do it. And my mum just keeps missing her eye. We're probably going to run out of ointment because so much ends up in the wrong place. The nurses are still doing 2 visits 3x per week and my dear OH has done a few visits, but he has a busy job and can't do all of it. And when I do it, not only do we often fail but my mum gets really angry at my incompetence and it's messing up her compliance with me in other things, which is always a bit fragile and really important as I do so much for her.
What can I do? I asked her carer who comes once per week to take her to the hairdresser and clean if she could do it but the company she works for has a minimum visit time of 1 hours, so it would be bank-breaking to pay her for 4 visits a day.
The district nurses won't come when I'm available.
I suppose I have to lurch on till Thursday, but what if she needs to stay on the ointment? I want it to have worked because I want her eye to heal, but I also don't want it to because I can't face the battles going on.
Part of me feels like I need her to go to a CH, but this is presumably a short term problem and not really a valid reason for her to lose her home when otherwise we manage pretty well.