My mum's in late stages of Vascular Dementia and has been in a care home since December after a month in hospital for a fall (attributed to UTI and dehydration) and then Covid. (My dad died in September and mum couldn't cope alone even with my sibling and I each doing daily visits.)
For the past 4 or 5 weeks she's said about having banging headaches and felt constantly tired, nodding off several times once during one of my visits. The GP saw her several times, ordered blood tests and arranged for a CT scan. The CT scan appointment was on Tuesday this week. I noticed a week ago that her speech had slowed down considerably and her mobility was worse.
Less than 24 hours after the CT scan I received a call to ask if I'd take her to hospital immediately - there were no ambulances available that didn't have a long waiting time. Apparently the CT scan showed that she had had or was having a stroke. Three of us struggled to get her into my car at the care home, and three to get her out at the hospital... but that's another story...
The hospital were expecting her - she was assessed by a few different professionals including the stroke assessment team. It transpires that sometime over the last couple of weeks mum's had a full-on stroke (no signs other than the headaches and tiredness, plus the slowed speech and worsened mobility). It's a left-front of brain stoke and it's still evolving
The lovely folk at the hospital showed me the CT scan and explained everything, including the fact that the scan showed that at some point since November, when she'd had a CT scan after the fall, she'd had another stroke affecting the left-middle brain.
They were satisfied that mum could be returned to the care home with a stash of info for me to pass on to them of what to look out for over the next few days/weeks. They contacted the GP whilst I was there to prescribe anti-stoke meds... but they said that in all honesty the probability is that mum will have further strokes.
Anyway, I returned her to the care home (3 more people to get her into the car and 3 more to get her out!) and bless her, she had no clue about the hospital visit, couldn't remember anything about it, couldn't process anything that was said to her.
I left her in their capable hands and she looked so happy to be back with the other residents and staff. I'm under no illusions as to what may or may not happen - I'm just going with the flow. As long as mum's safe and happy, that's all that matters.
I just needed to offload - thanks for listening.
S x
For the past 4 or 5 weeks she's said about having banging headaches and felt constantly tired, nodding off several times once during one of my visits. The GP saw her several times, ordered blood tests and arranged for a CT scan. The CT scan appointment was on Tuesday this week. I noticed a week ago that her speech had slowed down considerably and her mobility was worse.
Less than 24 hours after the CT scan I received a call to ask if I'd take her to hospital immediately - there were no ambulances available that didn't have a long waiting time. Apparently the CT scan showed that she had had or was having a stroke. Three of us struggled to get her into my car at the care home, and three to get her out at the hospital... but that's another story...
The hospital were expecting her - she was assessed by a few different professionals including the stroke assessment team. It transpires that sometime over the last couple of weeks mum's had a full-on stroke (no signs other than the headaches and tiredness, plus the slowed speech and worsened mobility). It's a left-front of brain stoke and it's still evolving
The lovely folk at the hospital showed me the CT scan and explained everything, including the fact that the scan showed that at some point since November, when she'd had a CT scan after the fall, she'd had another stroke affecting the left-middle brain.They were satisfied that mum could be returned to the care home with a stash of info for me to pass on to them of what to look out for over the next few days/weeks. They contacted the GP whilst I was there to prescribe anti-stoke meds... but they said that in all honesty the probability is that mum will have further strokes.
Anyway, I returned her to the care home (3 more people to get her into the car and 3 more to get her out!) and bless her, she had no clue about the hospital visit, couldn't remember anything about it, couldn't process anything that was said to her.
I left her in their capable hands and she looked so happy to be back with the other residents and staff. I'm under no illusions as to what may or may not happen - I'm just going with the flow. As long as mum's safe and happy, that's all that matters.
I just needed to offload - thanks for listening.
S x
