I left work early today. Lack of sleep and just generally feeling ****. My work are lovely and understanding. But I'm getting ill. I've been told my white blood cell counts are very low by my doctor. I'm only in my early 30s. A little worried.
I left work early today. Lack of sleep and just generally feeling ****. My work are lovely and understanding. But I'm getting ill. I've been told my white blood cell counts are very low by my doctor. I'm only in my early 30s. A little worried.
I today had to ring the doctors to find out when they were coming out to do my husbands bloods for the memory clinic only to be told the district nurses won’t come out as he is not housebound !!!! If I hadn’t rung up I’d still be waiting now for the letter . As it stands I now have an appointment on Tuesday.Dad's appointment has been cancelled. I only found out as I called up memory clinic to confirm the time of it. They told me they called up dad last week and he confirmed that it was ok.
Of course this was never passed on, I asked for letters to be sent to me about the rearrangement, they said they would try and send me a copy.
I felt let like crying. I have been using up a lot of my time off allowance from work and arranging my life around him. But nobody really cares.
Memory clinic appointment on Monday. I sent a pdf doc attachment to them, documenting everything that's going on, i asking it's read by the assessor before the appointment. It feels like going behind dads back. But it's not the time to feel guilty. Hopefully they will. My depression is at a high right now, apprehensive about everything. Running scenarios through my head. Stupid really, I know. Not sure how I will feel either way. Odd, there isn't a good answer.
My dad doesn't recall what we were doing this morning already. But he says it was nice to get out for a bit. So I didn't press further.Im glad you have got the ball rolling and will probably be getting a diagnosis soon.
When mum was given her diagnosis it just seemed to go over her head - she seemed to think he was talking about someone else and then she soon forgot.
I think it was the best thing to do in the circumstances. No point pressing further if he was struggling. She seemed very sure about the home visit in September, I would be terribly surprised if they didn't come back with a diagnosis. I was reading my initial post on the thread. It's pretty hard seeing how far he has declined in recent months. I think my mum's death has just been too much for him. I hope the decline at least flat lines for the next few years. I have a lot to think about as I want dad to stay in the house for as long as humanly possible. I may look to go part time with work.It's good to get process going, but sad your dad couldn't cope with the tests. My OH was like that, the pressure of the situation got to her, and I don't know if your dad is the same. Looks like the nurse was sensitive and sensible though, so you should have some support there when she makes the home visit.
I do feel for you @AztecCamera87 this is such a difficult situation. I can empathize with the balance the lack of perception and the eating issues my mother-in-law had all of these. She also adamantly denied that she was responsible for any faeces on the floor. I remember the "poogate" issues so well.....a couple of things of I had noticed develop of late:
- Depth perception decline:
Dad has been finding it more difficult with his depth perception of late. He has to take a whole lot of care to place his cup on the little table next to his chair and has spilt his coffee cup on a few occasions in the last couple of weeks. He has also dropped things on the floor like the remote control when placing it down. This is an odd one, he has also started to miss his mouth when eating. Always ends up with food all down his shirt or spilling the milk from his breakfast cereal when trying to drink the milk.
- Continuing decline of walking and balance:
Every day it's becoming further difficult for dad to get out of his armchair. I know I talk about the walking quite a lot. But his GP brushed it off as just the fact he broke his hip several years ago, so it's just general stiffness. But this is more than that, after a few struggling steps he will stop, almost like he is thinking about how to walk. His feet are shuffling more on the ground. He cannot stand up without holding on to something or he can't keep balance.
- The best way to urinate... :
Granted this could easily be down to fact he can't get out to the toilet on time. Although sometimes he just isn't aware he's going to urinate. But the times he is aware, he has started this very very off thing of grabbing a towel (we keep towels all over the house at the moment, due to spills and etc). Chucking this towel on the floor and then just peeing on it. I caught him yesterday in the kitchen, he said he didn't just do this, despite having his penis out and mid-pee on the towel. He didn't seem to realise why this was a problem.
My sister told me she found him doing the same thing in the bathroom a couple days previous, despite being a matter of steps away from toilet. A few days back, I thought it was odd that two kicten towels (used to dry dishes) smelt like urine, I assumed dad had just used them to clean a mess in the toilet.... So i chucked them straight into the wash....
No, but I'm thinking about investing in one over the next few weeks, as it would really help him with getting up out of the seat and would be much more comfortable for him.Hi.Does your dad have an electric recliner?
I agree but ,to be frank, perhaps it's time to consider a whole team looking after your dad? I'm sure that's not what you want to hear ,but you can only do so muchWith the story about the towel and now this, it sounds like he still has understanding that he needs to go (sometimes at least) but cannot remember where, or what a toilet is.
Time for a new needs assessment?