How long is a reasonable amount of time for docs to diagnose

[gizmo]

my grandmother has been in a elderly mental health assessment centre for four months now originally she was supposed to be in there for six weeks to under go assessment
she has had two brain scans both showed normal for someone in there eightys lots of blood and urine tests no sign of any infection,
yet she is hallucin and the last week has made no sence at all has started wetting herself

i am wondering how long is a reasonable amount of time for them to come to some sort of diagnosis


and they have suggested that she needs residental care shouldnt they get to the diagnosis first before tryin to ship her off somewhere else

plz any comments welcomed

[chmaja]

Hi, sorry you still have this problem.

Firstly there is no set time for anybody to "diagnose" anything. Sometimes a provisional diagnosis is made and other investigations mean the diagnosis is altered. Other patients spend many years not knowing exactlyw hat is wrong and the symptoms such as in your Grandmothers case do not seem to fit at this point with a specific diagnosis.

It seems you are really struggling with this issue.

Are you the next of kin? If so please seek an appointment with the medical team consultant and if not then please speak asap to whoever is so that they can discuss your concerns with you and give you any further info they have to help you deal with these concerns. PErhaps if the NOK has not discussed things recently perhaps they will do so soon and can update you?

Clearly your Grandmother is not in a position to care for herself and so again it is up to the next of kin to discuss the options of longer term care with the teams caring for her.

They cannot "ship her off" anywere which is a concerneing statement to make. They might be able to discuss the options and encourage reality here as clearly she is not n a positiont o return home safely with or without care packages and would the family be able to cope with this situation 24 hours of every day seven days a week? If the answer to this is no then sadly the time is approaching where she will need a residential setting which is regsitered to provide care to an elderly person of her age and circumstances.

With best wishes for the future and I hope you can as a concerned relative find the strength to spend lots of time with her and provide her with familiar sounds (eg her fav music etc) photo's nice clothes and a lot of love. She will respond to these things in her own way and as much of her own belongings as is practical will help you when visiting to remember your Grandmother as she was and still can be..her familiar perfume or anything to keep her as the Grandmother who loves you............don't stay worried alone...........talk to family and if you don't have any then please find a support helpline to chat through the issues again.

Chris
www.mypeggypeg.blogspot.com

[g.herschel]

When STAN was ill his main problem was his mobility from 1995 he would now and again use wheelchair in 2002 he was in wheelchair all the time however we noticed his memory was not as good as it should be we all though it was just his age 83 and to be honest it did not bother any of the family he could remember most things from his past but the last few years he had no idea so it was his recent memory and as i have said it was not a problem for us but the doctors had a different point of view over the next 2 years they had STAN in for tests time after time it went on and on STAN himself said he was sick of all the tests after 2 years they said he has alzheimers but because of his age and the mini strokes there was nothing they could do for him what annoyed me was the constant visits to hospital for the tests all for nothing.

GEORGE