Post by Sigh on Jun 13, 2015 19:23:21 GMT -5
Just over a month ago my mother, who has parkinson's disease and arthritis, ended up in hospital due to an infection. That was treated but her mobility is poor due to her conditions and the fact she was left in bed for 5 days. She had some physiotherapy and as she was "medically fit" was transferred out to another hospital where they have a sort of holding ward for people who can't go home yet for some reason. My mother had previously walked around the house with a zimmerframe before this, so our house is not set up for someone who is immobile. She had more physio at the second hospital and made enough progress to enable her to stand again with help. This resulted in her being transferred onto yet another hospital that has a physio rehab ward to work further on her mobility.
Due to her parkinsons, my mother can be cognitively slow at times, is increasingly forgetful and has hallucinations. Up until this point she was lucid 80% of the time at least and was aware that her hallucinations were not real.This has gotten massively worse since she has been transferred to the third hospital, to the point that other people (the staff) are noticing very clearly that she's hallucinating. The hospital consultant has, in an attempt to solve this, taken her off certain meds and tweaked others in case they were the culprit. Her mental state has not improved.
She's now at the point where she can't really remember the day before; she claims she hasn't been fed meals but the hospital say she's been given food and is eating at least some of it, she claims she hasn't had physio for days but we know that's not true because we have been there when she's having the physio so we know it's happening. She also thinks the staff/other patients are in some kind of conspiracy against her (some of the patients have been discharged and my mother claims they left to get away from her). She constantly tells us to shush or talk quietly in front of the staff and mumbles and gets annoyed when we can't hear her. She also gets very annoyed if she says something and we tell her it's not true, she gets angry and says we don't believe anything she says. It's a bit hard not to distress her by pretending it is real, which I think is what you're meant to do? Because it's often things about her care or that she's seen people in the ward (the bishop visited apparently :S). It's hard to know how to react. She also seems to hear bits and pieces of convos across the ward, or just sees people talking and thinks it's all about her.
The other major issue is that her mobility has not improved beyond aided standing, which means she cannot transfer from bed to chair etc. This means when she comes home, she will be moved by hoist only. The physio team have attempted to get her to take a few steps and say she's physically strong enough to do so but she gets freaked out and panics and refuses to move. Hoists are 2 person operation only, so carers will have to come 4 times a day (they were previously coming once to get her ready in the morning, with my father being her carer the rest of the day and overnight) to hoist her, get her ready, put her to bed, clean and wash her etc. She is currently on a catheter due to her poor mobility and the fact her skin gets sores etc very easily if wet. She wasn't on this previously and will require a nurse to come out and deal with changing that.
If all that wasn't already enough of a bombshell, the only room in our house big enough to house my mother and her equipment (hoist, hospital bed, chair... lots of electrical stuff) is our living room. The living room. The room most of our furniture is in, which we'd have to relocate to our small dining room which also is filled with furniture. It's also where our TV cables come in, and where our internet and router are. Their rough time scale for her being let out, if she doesn't make more progress, is 2 weeks. So that's just 2 weeks to completely reorganise the house and get rid of furniture and belongings to make room (my mother has hoarding decencies, so there's a lot to shift).
I... I just don't know how I feel about all this. There's so much, too much to take in all at once. I just wish this wasn't happening. I'm also bad with strangers and the thought of strange people wandering around the house every day, 4 times a day.. ugh it's just hard to get my head round.
Due to her parkinsons, my mother can be cognitively slow at times, is increasingly forgetful and has hallucinations. Up until this point she was lucid 80% of the time at least and was aware that her hallucinations were not real.This has gotten massively worse since she has been transferred to the third hospital, to the point that other people (the staff) are noticing very clearly that she's hallucinating. The hospital consultant has, in an attempt to solve this, taken her off certain meds and tweaked others in case they were the culprit. Her mental state has not improved.
She's now at the point where she can't really remember the day before; she claims she hasn't been fed meals but the hospital say she's been given food and is eating at least some of it, she claims she hasn't had physio for days but we know that's not true because we have been there when she's having the physio so we know it's happening. She also thinks the staff/other patients are in some kind of conspiracy against her (some of the patients have been discharged and my mother claims they left to get away from her). She constantly tells us to shush or talk quietly in front of the staff and mumbles and gets annoyed when we can't hear her. She also gets very annoyed if she says something and we tell her it's not true, she gets angry and says we don't believe anything she says. It's a bit hard not to distress her by pretending it is real, which I think is what you're meant to do? Because it's often things about her care or that she's seen people in the ward (the bishop visited apparently :S). It's hard to know how to react. She also seems to hear bits and pieces of convos across the ward, or just sees people talking and thinks it's all about her.
The other major issue is that her mobility has not improved beyond aided standing, which means she cannot transfer from bed to chair etc. This means when she comes home, she will be moved by hoist only. The physio team have attempted to get her to take a few steps and say she's physically strong enough to do so but she gets freaked out and panics and refuses to move. Hoists are 2 person operation only, so carers will have to come 4 times a day (they were previously coming once to get her ready in the morning, with my father being her carer the rest of the day and overnight) to hoist her, get her ready, put her to bed, clean and wash her etc. She is currently on a catheter due to her poor mobility and the fact her skin gets sores etc very easily if wet. She wasn't on this previously and will require a nurse to come out and deal with changing that.
If all that wasn't already enough of a bombshell, the only room in our house big enough to house my mother and her equipment (hoist, hospital bed, chair... lots of electrical stuff) is our living room. The living room. The room most of our furniture is in, which we'd have to relocate to our small dining room which also is filled with furniture. It's also where our TV cables come in, and where our internet and router are. Their rough time scale for her being let out, if she doesn't make more progress, is 2 weeks. So that's just 2 weeks to completely reorganise the house and get rid of furniture and belongings to make room (my mother has hoarding decencies, so there's a lot to shift).
I... I just don't know how I feel about all this. There's so much, too much to take in all at once. I just wish this wasn't happening. I'm also bad with strangers and the thought of strange people wandering around the house every day, 4 times a day.. ugh it's just hard to get my head round.
I'm so sorry you and your family are having to go through this. 
