Not sure where to start really, as things feel really out of control at the moment. Not only with my Nan but with the way in which she is being looked after in the hospital.
I posted a few weeks ago to say my Nan was admitted to hospital with MRSA and she is still there (6 weeks later), in the same tiny room, and so agitated it is impossible to speak to her any longer. She just keeps going round and round asking the same questions about what's happening and whether she'll be alright and nothing, absolutely nothing, we say seems to calm her. We've tried everything we can think of from speaking calmly and giving her repeated answers to distraction and shouting (in the hope that she will pick up on the tone that she is behaving unacceptably) as she has reacted to this in the past, but nothing seems to work. When we visit we all leave feeling completely exhausted and so stressed it seems a waste of time visiting at all, as it certainly doesn't appear to help my Nan in any way.
We all keep going from knowing that no-one can cope with her in this state (the hospital staff just ignore her) and feeling terrible and very guilty that we should be able to do more.
She was NOT like this when she was at home before she went in to hospital and I just can't understand why they are not sedating her a little. We were told by an agency nurse that she had never seen anybody on the sedative they are putting her on at night (she mentioned something about it being used on horses as it's so strong) so we've taken to presuming that they cannot give her anything else during the day.
She had a fall a few weeks ago and we arrived to find her nightdress on the floor (where it had been for a number of hours) absolutely covered in urine, and we are now being given bags of her dirty clothes absolutely covered in urine and excrement, where things have just been rolled up and thrown in a carrier bag.
My Mum visits every day and collects dirty laundry, however it seems that every few days she is absolutely piled with clothing and my Nan has nothing left in her drawers (some of it clean).
We also witnessed a nursing auxilliary walking her round the ward the other daym and when we asked if she was meant to be out of her room (due to the MRSA) we were told that my Nan comes out of her room herself anyway! So this makes it alright for the staff at the hospital to expose other patients to infection?!
The hospital has told us that they think my Nan should be placed in a home (of which there aren't many catering for dementia and nursing needs), and up until now we have been fighting for her to come home, but we know this is not possible now. The way she is at the moment, no-one would be able to care for her without heavy sedation, let alone my parents who both work full-time, so my Mum has phoned the social worker and asked her to look for a place at a home in the area and has spent the whole morning crying.
Sorry to have gone on so long, but it really does feel as though we had the whole situation under control until she had to go into hospital, and we still don't even know whether a bit of sedation could improve my Nan's mental state enough for us to have her home.
I can't bear seeing her in that state in that tiny room in hospital any longer.
I posted a few weeks ago to say my Nan was admitted to hospital with MRSA and she is still there (6 weeks later), in the same tiny room, and so agitated it is impossible to speak to her any longer. She just keeps going round and round asking the same questions about what's happening and whether she'll be alright and nothing, absolutely nothing, we say seems to calm her. We've tried everything we can think of from speaking calmly and giving her repeated answers to distraction and shouting (in the hope that she will pick up on the tone that she is behaving unacceptably) as she has reacted to this in the past, but nothing seems to work. When we visit we all leave feeling completely exhausted and so stressed it seems a waste of time visiting at all, as it certainly doesn't appear to help my Nan in any way.
We all keep going from knowing that no-one can cope with her in this state (the hospital staff just ignore her) and feeling terrible and very guilty that we should be able to do more.
She was NOT like this when she was at home before she went in to hospital and I just can't understand why they are not sedating her a little. We were told by an agency nurse that she had never seen anybody on the sedative they are putting her on at night (she mentioned something about it being used on horses as it's so strong) so we've taken to presuming that they cannot give her anything else during the day.
She had a fall a few weeks ago and we arrived to find her nightdress on the floor (where it had been for a number of hours) absolutely covered in urine, and we are now being given bags of her dirty clothes absolutely covered in urine and excrement, where things have just been rolled up and thrown in a carrier bag.
My Mum visits every day and collects dirty laundry, however it seems that every few days she is absolutely piled with clothing and my Nan has nothing left in her drawers (some of it clean).
We also witnessed a nursing auxilliary walking her round the ward the other daym and when we asked if she was meant to be out of her room (due to the MRSA) we were told that my Nan comes out of her room herself anyway! So this makes it alright for the staff at the hospital to expose other patients to infection?!
The hospital has told us that they think my Nan should be placed in a home (of which there aren't many catering for dementia and nursing needs), and up until now we have been fighting for her to come home, but we know this is not possible now. The way she is at the moment, no-one would be able to care for her without heavy sedation, let alone my parents who both work full-time, so my Mum has phoned the social worker and asked her to look for a place at a home in the area and has spent the whole morning crying.
Sorry to have gone on so long, but it really does feel as though we had the whole situation under control until she had to go into hospital, and we still don't even know whether a bit of sedation could improve my Nan's mental state enough for us to have her home.
I can't bear seeing her in that state in that tiny room in hospital any longer.
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