Mum in hospital for 8 weeks

AlwaysWinter

New member
Jul 9, 2019
4
0
My mum has had Alzheimer’s for a few years now, but all of a sudden things have worsened. My mum lives alone in her home and my sister and I share care. I live near mum, my sister lives at least 2 hours drive away. I go to appointments with mum and deal with crises. My sister deals with paying for mum’s Carers and paying all mum’s bills, etc and visits when she can.

Eight weeks ago, mum was taken into hospital as I tried to take her to an emergency dental appointment as she said her mouth hurt but she couldn’t get out of her chair. I rang her GP who arranged for the Rapid Response Team to come around. A nurse turned up and couldn’t get mum out of her chair either so after a discussion the nurse called for an ambulance with a 2-4 hour window.

The ambulance turned up a couple of hours later and when waiting in A&E for assessment mum was very confused. To cut an even longer story short mum was admitted and has had constant UTIs, she has to use a Sara Stedy as she cannot walk at all. She had delirium for a while but apparently that’s gone so it looks like her Alzheimer’s has worsened drastically. She also had asphyxiation pneumonia as she fell asleep while eating and drinking and therefore didn’t digest things properly. That’s all sorted now but she can barely feed and water herself.

When we visit (my sister comes down with her partner at least once a week, I was visiting daily but found it too much so now visit 2/3 x week) she has no idea of where she is, what year it is or sometimes who my sister and I are. Sometimes she’s crying over things that happened decades ago, but mostly she laughs. She waves at the other patients and medical staff thinking that she knows them all as neighbours, etc.

We were hoping that mum would be put on a preventive antibiotic (10% success rate) but as she’s built up resistance to antibiotics it was decided not to put her on them.

My sister and I decided that it would be best for mum to move up near her (there’s at least 3 family members who can visit mum, there’s only me here and I have poor mental health which has been made worse by the pressure we’re under).

The CCG want to know why mum is constantly getting UTIs even when she’s in hospital and won’t agree to funding for an assessment in a nursing/care home until she’s “stable”. Mum is not stable now and there is no sign of her becoming “stable”.

Sorry for the really long post, but I’m wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation.
 

Louise7

Volunteer Host
Mar 25, 2016
4,694
0
Unfortunately everything seems to come down to funding but there needs to be an assessment of your Mum's care needs first. Is your Mum still in hospital and considered fit for discharge? If so you can request a care needs assessment for her and a CHC checklist prior to discharge to establish what help she needs. Ask the ward staff or contact the hospital social work team directly. If she has already been discharged contact social services for a care needs assessment - they are legally obliged to provide this. Are your Mum's current carers being paid for by social services? If your Mum is not self-funding they will usually not consider a nursing/care home placement before trying out an increase in carers first.