Getting medical diagnosis when not willing to cooperate?

[anon36]

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone that's offered support and advice on my other posts. I'm going to be cautiously optimistic by posting in this section rather than end of life care as Mum seems to have picked up a bit more again but it's still very up and down.
The struggle with the initial diagnosis and with any treatment of more recent ailments has been a strong resistance in taking any medication or acceptance of the condition. She's just someone that often won't tell people if in any discomfort or admitting to anything like that. With her recently going off food we tend to assume it's indigestion/heartburn/acid reflux as she did take Rennies and similar prior to going into the home. Now she won't take anything like that so we're suggesting the home add medication for those conditions into drinks etc. The only thing is we're not that sure if that is the reason for the loss of appetite, whether it could be difficulty swallowing or something. If she's not willing to cooperate with anyone to help with any medical issues or admit to anything being wrong is there anything we can try?
I did consider passive methods like just discussing things in passing as in 'I had this bad cold the other day and felt like I couldn't swallow' and see if we can coax anything out at all?

 

[Amy in the US]

You can ask for a referral from a SALT or speech and language pathologist/therapist, to see if there is a physical problem with swallowing. It's probably a good idea to at least rule out a physical problem.

If there's a history of acid reflux/GERD/heartburn/indigestion, then it makes sense to talk to the GP or nursing staff about using some kind of medication for that, just in case it is part of the problem and she can't/won't/doesn't articulate it well.

I'm sorry that I don't have better ideas for you.