Elderly parents or relatives to care for and/or worry about? This is the place for you.

5 lurkers | 140 watchers
6 Mar
11:27am, 6 Mar 2024
67,025 posts
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LindsD
It's great when people that have experience don't leave and share that experience with others - thank you.
6 Mar
11:44am, 6 Mar 2024
5,743 posts
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icemaiden
Yup, that's my experience too. My dad didn't get physio in hospital, wasn't encouraged to get out of bed at all, although he had to wander off to the loo. He might have managed when he was out, but the safest thing was not to let him go home.

My MiL is 'going off her legs' now. She's at home, on her own, I think she's 87 or 88, doesn't go out alone. Can do the stairs, but can't stand in the kitchen for too long. Really wants an indoor chair she can sit in all the time and wheel about the house. She has decided that perching stools aren't secure enough, so has rejected them. I haven't told her about the superdooper electric chairs you can get that will raise you up.

Sorry for everyone's losses this week. There's a lot of it about. A chap at Monday band practice lost his dad at the weekend, he'd fallen just before Christmas, spent some time in hospital, was discharged to a carehome and faded away.
6 Mar
12:02pm, 6 Mar 2024
67,027 posts
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LindsD
MiL sounds a bit like my Mum, icemaiden. She will still go out alone but with a stick, and much prefers to take someone's arm. Can't stand in the kitchen so won't cook. We bought her a shower chair because she says she has to get up 2 hours before she has to leave the house because her legs 'don't work' for the first 2 hours of the day so now she showers sitting down. We bought it her as insurance in case she was standing in the shower and felt unsteady. That's a lesson for me. NOt interested in doing her physio exercises or trying in any way to stop her mobility from decreasing further but is 'really worried about ending up in a wheelchair'.
6 Mar
12:29pm, 6 Mar 2024
5,744 posts
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icemaiden
MiL positively enjoys being pushed about, she doesn't walk in the shops, OH has to take her wheelchair with them. She needs her arms to get up out of her comfy chair in the front room. She also showers, but I don't know how she achieves that.
jda
6 Mar
1:05pm, 6 Mar 2024
16,636 posts
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jda
LMH, there was some physio in hospital, but maybe not enough or maybe he just didn't respond well enough. The way it was described to us, he could haul himself up by his good arm with some sort of frame and maybe manage a few steps, but that's all. We are fairly phlegmatic about it, after all it was 6y ago that he first fell over and hurt his legs such that he couldn't walk for a few weeks, and then again 3y ago, so keeping going this long has been an achievement. But I just can't help but think that the plan for his arm wasn't really very well thought-through at the outset. Maybe there really wasn't much else they could reasonably have done though.

Another relative of a similar age has by all accounts given up walking after a lengthy bed stay. I think in his case he's still capable in principle but reluctant due to fear of falling. I think given his location that probably confines him to the house.

The care home actually said the lack of mobility would probably enable FiL to be moved to the nursing wing when a space opens up rather than the dementia wing where he is now, which would be a slightly better environment as some of the dementia cases can be disruptive.
6 Mar
1:33pm, 6 Mar 2024
5,745 posts
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icemaiden
Sometimes the dementia patients end up on the nursing wing too. There is no guarantee of a quiet life in a carehome.
6 Mar
6:17pm, 6 Mar 2024
32,244 posts
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macca 53
MiL went into the dementia floor of her care home and got on quite well and was very settled if a little noisy - it all went down hill when they had a covid outbreak (in December 21) and mrs macca wasn’t able to make her daily visit (the home was about 10 mins walk from home). When the home re-opened almost two months later she had been transferred to the nursing wing and was bedbound and didn’t survive very long from then, passing away on the palindromic 22/02/2022
6 Mar
7:38pm, 6 Mar 2024
26,418 posts
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Bazoaxe
MiL always gets physio in hospital before they send her home and sometimes they come out to her home as well. It is great, but I dont think it actually make much difference

Our latest challenge is we were referred to some support for us as carers. BiL refused to attend with us and apparently was making a separate appt. Lots of good suggestions were made and last week we went to see a ‘safe house’ set up. BiL would need to agree to anything suggested, but of course has refused to agree. The lift saga also ongoing and no sign of resolution. We have had to rearrange one hospital appt already. BiL is apparently attending a stair meeting tonight though.
7 Mar
6:40am, 7 Mar 2024
6,990 posts
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Little Miss Happy
Sorry to hear that your BiL is still making life unnecessarily difficult Baz.
7 Mar
7:34am, 7 Mar 2024
67,037 posts
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LindsD
Sounds incredibly frustrating

About This Thread

Maintained by LindsD
I thought I'd start a thread, as lots of us have elderly folks that we worry about/care for.

Useful info for after someone dies here (with thanks to grast_girl)
moneysavingexpert.com

Other useful links

myageingparent.com

moneysavingexpert.com

Who pays for residential care? Information here:

ageuk.org.uk

Advice on care homes and payment/funding

theguardian.com

Also: After someone dies, if their home insurance was only in their name, sadly the cover becomes void. But if the policy was in joint names, it will still cover the surviving policyholder (though the names on the policy will need to be updated).

A useful book of exercises for memory loss and dementia
amazon.co.uk

Pension Credit. The rules are a bit complex but if your elderly relative has some sort of disability (in this case dementia/Alzheimer's) and go into a home, they may be able to claim pension credit. So if carers allowance stops, it seems pension credit can start. It can also be backdated.

Fall alarm company, etc.

careium.co.uk

Useful Links

FE accepts no responsibility for external links. Or anything, really.

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