Hi,
My Nan was diagnosed with early onset dementia last year and has the doctors believing that it's not very bad even though her memory has been deteriorating for years.
She currently lives at home with my Grandad who is 80 and has parkinsons disease. My Dad is not particularly helpful so my sister and I are handling everything for them, from sorting bills and making calls etc. However we both work full time and only get the information they give us.
The problem we are having is that my nan has lots of doctors appointments that she attends on her own, but after walking out she has no memory of what has been said. She is still able to make decisions about her health but we are struggling as we do not know what she has been told and what appointments or treatments she has been prescribed. My grandad finds it extremely hard to sort through as he doesn't understand what these are for.
What I want to know is is there a way that records of the doctors appointments can be sent to myself or my sister so we can keep track of what she has been diagnosed with and what medication she has been prescribed? We aren't around to go to every doctors appointment with her and we're not allowed due to covid, but we're also worried that she's not being 100% honest with her doctor and allowing them to know the full extent of her troubles. We're trying to help as much as we can as we don't want our grandad to have to worry about things he doesn't understand on top of his own worries.
So has anyone had any experience on this front and will her doctors speak to us about it or will we be shut down on the patient confidentiality front?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! TIA
My Nan was diagnosed with early onset dementia last year and has the doctors believing that it's not very bad even though her memory has been deteriorating for years.
She currently lives at home with my Grandad who is 80 and has parkinsons disease. My Dad is not particularly helpful so my sister and I are handling everything for them, from sorting bills and making calls etc. However we both work full time and only get the information they give us.
The problem we are having is that my nan has lots of doctors appointments that she attends on her own, but after walking out she has no memory of what has been said. She is still able to make decisions about her health but we are struggling as we do not know what she has been told and what appointments or treatments she has been prescribed. My grandad finds it extremely hard to sort through as he doesn't understand what these are for.
What I want to know is is there a way that records of the doctors appointments can be sent to myself or my sister so we can keep track of what she has been diagnosed with and what medication she has been prescribed? We aren't around to go to every doctors appointment with her and we're not allowed due to covid, but we're also worried that she's not being 100% honest with her doctor and allowing them to know the full extent of her troubles. We're trying to help as much as we can as we don't want our grandad to have to worry about things he doesn't understand on top of his own worries.
So has anyone had any experience on this front and will her doctors speak to us about it or will we be shut down on the patient confidentiality front?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! TIA