Hi everybody. I've only just joined this forum. My Mum has Parkinsons and dementia and has been living on her own in a sheltered bungalow with carers visiting 4 times a day. Having talked to her social worker, we had applied for her to move into a very sheltered flat with care on site 24/7.
We were just waiting for a flat to become available when on Friday she fell trying to walk from the bedroom to the lounge before the carers got there in the morning. She had actually done this three days earlier as well. I had a call at work to let me know that the carers had rung for an ambulance. The first time, the paramedics just got her up and checked her over and she was OK, but on the Friday I was told they taking her in for an xray as she said her leg hurt. I met her up at the hospital and the xray showed up a fractured hip. She was admitted and told they were going to do a Dynamic Hip Screw on the Saturday.
So they did this operation and physically she is doing as well as can be expected, but it seems to have made the dementia worse. She is very confused about where she is and what is happening and keeps asking when she can go home. I arrived at the hospital tonight and she had been trying to get out of bed and had got her legs tangled up in the side bars of the bed. She is not making much sense at all and seems very frightened. She looks at me like I am doing something terrible to her for making her stay in this place and I and the nurses have to keep trying to explain that she has to stay where she is for now until her leg gets better.
I spoke to the social worker and she said they had a flat available but they had to give it someone else as they don't know how long mum will be in hospital. The doctors have said she will need to go to rehab as well before going home. The social worker said that the next flat should go to mum and I am hoping that it becomes available in the right time frame, ie not too soon that they have to give it away again but before she is ready to come home so that we can move her straight into there as there is no way she can manage now without someone on hand at all times.
I am really not sure what is the best. The geriatrician had suggested a home, but the social worker thought that the very sheltered flat would be better. I really don't know what to do for the best. I have the nurses to contact the geriatrician to see he will see her in the hospital as she had an appointment later this month anyway (which should have been earlier but we had to cancel twice because of the snow). I would like to talk to him and the social worker together to work out what is best for mum.
We were just waiting for a flat to become available when on Friday she fell trying to walk from the bedroom to the lounge before the carers got there in the morning. She had actually done this three days earlier as well. I had a call at work to let me know that the carers had rung for an ambulance. The first time, the paramedics just got her up and checked her over and she was OK, but on the Friday I was told they taking her in for an xray as she said her leg hurt. I met her up at the hospital and the xray showed up a fractured hip. She was admitted and told they were going to do a Dynamic Hip Screw on the Saturday.
So they did this operation and physically she is doing as well as can be expected, but it seems to have made the dementia worse. She is very confused about where she is and what is happening and keeps asking when she can go home. I arrived at the hospital tonight and she had been trying to get out of bed and had got her legs tangled up in the side bars of the bed. She is not making much sense at all and seems very frightened. She looks at me like I am doing something terrible to her for making her stay in this place and I and the nurses have to keep trying to explain that she has to stay where she is for now until her leg gets better.
I spoke to the social worker and she said they had a flat available but they had to give it someone else as they don't know how long mum will be in hospital. The doctors have said she will need to go to rehab as well before going home. The social worker said that the next flat should go to mum and I am hoping that it becomes available in the right time frame, ie not too soon that they have to give it away again but before she is ready to come home so that we can move her straight into there as there is no way she can manage now without someone on hand at all times.
I am really not sure what is the best. The geriatrician had suggested a home, but the social worker thought that the very sheltered flat would be better. I really don't know what to do for the best. I have the nurses to contact the geriatrician to see he will see her in the hospital as she had an appointment later this month anyway (which should have been earlier but we had to cancel twice because of the snow). I would like to talk to him and the social worker together to work out what is best for mum.