Sorry if this has been covered many times before, I'm sure that it must have but this is my first message and I am looking for some advice to help my wife deal with her mother's growing difficulties.
My mother-in-law is in her eighties and has quite suddenly started to deteriorate. She has become very vague and forgetful, she sits staring at the floor when she used to read constantly. Her friend says she has completely changed and has stopped communicating when they socialise. What is most concerning is she went missing one day last week (she lives on her own) and eventually returned to her home in her car with no recollection of where she had been. A few days ago she took her friend out and had a minor accident, hitting a traffic island, damaging her wheel and puncturing the front tyre. She drove home like this and when asked about the damage she had no recollection of the journey or hitting anything.
My wife has made an appointment for her to see her doctor this week for an unrelated problem and wants to take the opportunity for the doctor to assess her mother.
We desperately want her to stop driving but dare not even mention she seems ill. She will be seriously upset if we made her stop driving and is constantly asking for someone to fix her car. We are worried she might run someone over! Short of hiding her car keys we don't know how to stop her getting back onto the road.
I'm sorry this has gone on a bit, but not being able to drive anymore will be such a blow, do we just come out and tell her she has to stop, or should we ask the doctor to give her the bad news?
My mother-in-law is in her eighties and has quite suddenly started to deteriorate. She has become very vague and forgetful, she sits staring at the floor when she used to read constantly. Her friend says she has completely changed and has stopped communicating when they socialise. What is most concerning is she went missing one day last week (she lives on her own) and eventually returned to her home in her car with no recollection of where she had been. A few days ago she took her friend out and had a minor accident, hitting a traffic island, damaging her wheel and puncturing the front tyre. She drove home like this and when asked about the damage she had no recollection of the journey or hitting anything.
My wife has made an appointment for her to see her doctor this week for an unrelated problem and wants to take the opportunity for the doctor to assess her mother.
We desperately want her to stop driving but dare not even mention she seems ill. She will be seriously upset if we made her stop driving and is constantly asking for someone to fix her car. We are worried she might run someone over! Short of hiding her car keys we don't know how to stop her getting back onto the road.
I'm sorry this has gone on a bit, but not being able to drive anymore will be such a blow, do we just come out and tell her she has to stop, or should we ask the doctor to give her the bad news?