My mother has Alzheimer's and has been living in a care home for just over a year now. It took her a while to settle there but for a few months she was reasonably contented.
But over the last few weeks her ability to understand what is going on around her seems to have deteriorated fairly rapidly and she is quite stressed. She talks a lot of the time she is awake and gets quite emotional. Last week she had a day in hospital because she passed out and had low blood sugar levels. Lots of tests were done but no infections found - the cause seems to be not eating or drinking enough. I have been going in at lunchtime to try to encourage her to eat but she just pushes food away. It is getting worse and the doctor has said that if she doesn't improve in the next 24 hours she will have to go back into hospital. The care home staff are doing the best they can - they are now trying to encourage her to take small amounts of liquid every 10 minutes or so. I don't want her to go into hospital but can't think what else to do.
But over the last few weeks her ability to understand what is going on around her seems to have deteriorated fairly rapidly and she is quite stressed. She talks a lot of the time she is awake and gets quite emotional. Last week she had a day in hospital because she passed out and had low blood sugar levels. Lots of tests were done but no infections found - the cause seems to be not eating or drinking enough. I have been going in at lunchtime to try to encourage her to eat but she just pushes food away. It is getting worse and the doctor has said that if she doesn't improve in the next 24 hours she will have to go back into hospital. The care home staff are doing the best they can - they are now trying to encourage her to take small amounts of liquid every 10 minutes or so. I don't want her to go into hospital but can't think what else to do.