The Mock Turtle

No wonder, it's a lot to take in. I hope you are able to get some help, it's a lot for you to deal with.

I hope she can manage to take the medication and that it helps, Tex.

rosy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:46 pm I hope she can manage to take the medication and that it helps, Tex.

The main concern is her remembering to take it, we might need to set some sort of reminder. It won’t do anything to reverse the condition but it’s supposed to stimulate the healthy parts of the brain to try to compensate a bit and slow down the progression.

I think the way forward is always going ti be confusing/ difficulty to navigate, but that sounds like really helpful diagnostic information, Tex. I don't think we got that level of clarity about my dad at any point - understanding which aspects of his cognitive functions were missing/ slow would have helped make interacting with him less fraught, I think.

Sorry, Tex. it’s tough whatever the outcome, but hopefully getting a diagnosis will help to make things more manageable.

Sorry, Tex, it sounds really hard. The not knowing thing must be very difficult.

The nurse phoned today to let me know the ECG results were fine so there’s no issue with the medication. She’ll set up an appointment with OT early next week so they can go to see her and discuss a strategy for not forgetting to take the tablets.

We’ve had a couple of delays due to people being on leave but now have an appt in the diary to get going with the meds. They will send the prescription to me so I can get it filled and bring the meds to the appt. The OT has got some sort of reminder dispenser box so we should be good to go. The logistics are giving me a headache as MrTex will be in Abu Dhabi so I have to get kids to school, drive to London for an hour’s appt and then get back in time for school run pick up but it should be doable. I do at least have compassionate rather than annual leave booked.

Well done Tex, that sounds like progress.

I’m glad there’s been progress, Tex. The OT might have one of these dosset boxes which need someone (your mum, unless she has carers) to fill them every week which can be time consuming and confusing. If that’s not going to be straightforward for her the pharmacy should be able to dispense her meds in one of these which might suit her (and you) better.

It will just be a single tablet once a day so no need for a big dispenser and a blister pack isn’t ideal as remembering what day it is is one of her main issues. I believe the one the OT has got has an audible alarm which goes off to remind her to take it.

We’ve hit another big step down, prob at least partly influenced by lockdown. My mum was here for the weekend and quite disorientated by being in a different place to normal. We had several not making it to the bathroom incidents which I put down to the disorientation. However I drove her home today and it became apparent that it’s just as bad at home. We also realised that cutting toenails hasn’t occurred to her for quite some time (obvious when you think about it but not something I thought to check).

She has a new dementia link worker assigned and he came today to do an assessment so we’ll be escalating back to social services again tomorrow.

It's so tough being so far away and the only child - I'm really sorry you're having to go through this. Do you think they might recommend residential care at this point?

The link worker suggested a daily visit at home would be appropriate and I think that’s probably right. Totally aside from how resistant to moving she is if she gets that disorientated at our house which she’s familiar with a completely new environment would be impossible.

That sounds sensible to me. I think a familiar environment is a strong positive and if she's ok at home with support then I'd definitely be inclined to try that before anything else (and especially at the moment given COVID and care homes). I'm so sorry though, I can't imagine how hard this is with bloody lockdown compounding everything.

Thanks for all the sympathy.

She’s fairly resistant to support at home and only really considering it as the lesser of 2 evils.

I’m sorry this is happening, Tex. it must be very difficult to see your mum like that.

Another brain dump, feel free to ignore.

We have a visit from social services on Monday. They will do a 2 week assessment and then, assuming they feel she needs help with a specific task, will refer it on to a care agency. I phoned her yesterday to tell her what was happening (I’ll drive up to be there for the first visit) and while clearly not keen she didn’t dismiss it out of hand. TBH I’m encouraged that she even remembered the conversation from a couple of weeks ago.

This afternoon her neighbour texted to let me know that my mum had locked herself out but had remembered to go to the neighbour for the spare key. Again that’s quite reassuring.

We found some of those cheap key finder things quite useful when Mr Speedy's aunt kept losing her keys. It had got to the stage where we were constantly replacing keys for her because she'd lose them and we could never find them. Then we bought some of those key finder things. Absolute lifesavers.
We'd normally pop by after work to see if she was okay and make sure she locked up. Before the key finder it'd involve hunting round for keys, having to use the spare set then getting some more cut. When we bought the key finders it then became quite funny. We'd ask her where her keys where, she wouldn't know, we couldn't find them. So we'd press the key finder and 9 times out of 10 she'd bleep and produce them from her cardigan pocket!

Is that a tile (I think it’s called)? I was talking to her neighbour about getting one for my mum’s handbag in case she went out and got lost but attaching them to keys would be a good idea too.

The carer assessment has been hit and miss so far. The initial meeting went OK on Monday. Yesterday the carer phoned to say she’d arrived but my mum had gone out. She had to leave eventually. This morning the carer got there and my mum couldn’t open the front door but after a tense few minutes with a lot of phone calls, including my mum slamming the phone down on me, we got there eventually.