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Well don’t I feel dumb!

New Years Eve day I was rearranging craft supplies. I found a stitched stocking. All the x’s and beading done, just needed to be sewn into a stocking. I had completely forgotten about it.

Who does that? Completely forgets over 100 hours of work!

Ah, but what a lovely surprise to have a nearly complete stocking that you didn't know about!

Ha! You should see one particular hamper I have... full of completed stitching which hasn't been constructed into whatever it is meant to be. If I ever needed proof that I'm a "process" rather than a "product" craftsperson, that hamper is it! One day, the baby stuff I stitched for my godson might become a mobile for his first child -- it's possible.

Well, you don't want to rush these things

Well, quite so, Mabel. One must take time to judge these things, after all.

I'll not regurgitate another tale of woe, but will just give a few points.

Last week I had to attend testing at MIRA in Nuneaton. MIL took the opportunity to fall over, twice. On day 1 she needed an ambulance crew to check her out and get her up as Tracy was not able to do it on her own. Day 2 MIL fell over big time, and needed morphine & 3 crews to get her on a back board before going to A&E. She spent 48hrs in A&E and is now very confused and in an assessment ward. Initially there was concern she'd damaged her hip replacement, but the conclusion was she's twisted the knee, not broken the hip replacement.

Hospital is concerned about how confused she is.
It turns out her doctor managed to <air quotes>Forget</air quotes> to send in the memory clinic appointment request last month. They've managed to stall that by over a year now. <rude word>. It wasn't for nothing that the Daily Mail headline said in 2018 'Is this the worst GP's in the country?'. No, they really work for that accolade in every way imaginable.

Regards,

Richard

I'm so sorry you and Tracy are finding yourselves in this ongoing nightmarish position. At least (grabbing for good news) nothing is broken, but I can't be surprised that the hospital medics are concerned for her confusion.

Don't be concerned about letting off steam here. I have also added some unusual items to the crockery in the S&G dedicated space, should they be useful.

Do please let off steam and share troubles here, I just hope it helps a bit! Hopefully the hospital being concerned about MIL's confusion might speed things up a bit? And make it less traumatic for MIL to perhaps not return home - a friend's father recently was transferred to a home from hospital (where he was after a fall), and she said that made it a relatively smooth process as he would have "kicked up a stink" (her words) if they'd tried to get him into a home from his own home.

Agreed, Mabel, but that really isn't going to happen. The hospital feels that her confusion is not yet sufficient to declare that she has insufficient capacity and she can't go home. And she desperately wants to go home.

The fact she can't look after herself is not something she is prepared to accept.

Regards,

Richard

Of course MIL wants to go home. It's where she probably feels safest and believes she has the firmest grip on things. I cannot even begin to imagine how I would feel if I were becoming so confused. I'd be terrified. It's awful for you all. Hospital's attitude makes me wonder just how bad it has to get.

On a happier note, I've just had a close brush with the justice system. No, no, not that way. I was in the ballot for jury service, but clearly my number wasn't pulled out of the magic hat! Given that Scottish juries have 15 members (plus subs; rugby springs to mind), you have a bit more of a chance of being called. I expect I won't find myself with a citation again -- the upper age limit is 71 up here.

We got to see MIL in her new ward at the hospital.

It stank of urine, vomit and faeces. Fortunately my nose doesn't work very well, but Tracy was feeling sick after 15 minutes on the ward. It's a geriatric ward for those with dementia, and currently has a problem with Norovirus or something similar. Not that the hospital has made it into an isolation ward, because they haven't. It's just that you don't get 90% of the patients in a ward vomiting and having diarrhoea all over their beds without Norovirus or something similar. MIL has lost weight & not eaten for a week, and can barely keep water down. Her flesh has shrunk so much her face looks like an animated version of Ramesses 2nd's mummy (https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=d ... =944&dpr=1). She's due home today or tomorrow if a care package can be found, as she's 'Medically fit'.

Apparently vomiting is not a 'medical' problem any more.

However, MIL needs to get out and into somewhere she can be cared for, as care/nursing is not on that ward in the Medway Maritime hospital's agenda at the moment.

I have to say, I do pity the orderlies, auxiliaries & nurses on that ward. They are utterly overwhelmed & don't appear to be getting any help from the rest of the hospital.
But..
MIL's health is being put at further risk by staying there.

Regards,

Richard.

I feel for all the parties involved who have no power to change anything for the better - the orderlies, nurses, your MIL, you, Tracy. It's awful knowing things should be done and having no way of ensuring that they are done.

I echo Mabel's sentiments. It's possible help actually can't come from other wards in the hospital for fear of spreading the illness, which is infective enough without help, it seems. Watch your own health, you and Tracy.

The 'Occupational Therapy' (OT) group at the Medway hospital have 50% sickness rate at the moment (vomiting and diarrhoea, strangely enough), however they recommended strongly that MIL was kept in Medway to start getting her to get up and walk wherever possible. Which is why yesterday MIL was moved to a different borough and a different hospital and a different OT team. She's now in the Sheerness Community hospital and the OT assessments will all have to being from scratch again. Gaah! She hadn't arrived in the new hospital at 7pm yesterday when we tried to visit...
Despite the fact MIL's out of the Medway OT department jurisdiction, they are still wanting to complete their assessment of her bungalow so they have it on record for if she comes back again. What is currently being proposed is 2 carers to visit 4 times a day. Hopefully MIL will recover some mobility soon so she can live independently.

Hopefully the new hospital is under less pressure, but there is a risk MIL's just going to spread Norovirus to the new place.

It's so hard to know what to do for the best, especially as the only person talking to us from any hospital is the lady from Medway OT.

Regards,

Richard

I don't know what to say Richard - what a muddle, to use a polite word. Yes, let's hope MIL doesn't take unintended consequences with her to the new hospital. The proposed care package sounds quite good, a bit like the one our neighbour has at the moment, and she manages well with it, but it would need at least some mobility on your MIL's part. Go OT!

DH and I will be going on a vintage car holiday in Scotland in June/July, and he has just informed me that our route passes within half a mile of the Tapestry of Scotland, and would I like to go and see it?

Uhm....

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any one would think he planned it

I hope you are allowed enough time to fully appreciate it

Jo

You absolutely must stop in Galashiels and see the tapestry in its new home. Where in Scotland will you be, she asked pointedly.

Richard, they were right to move your mother to a safer hospital. My understanding of norovirus (and I hope I'm not whistling in the dark here) is that it moves quickly between subjects, so if MIL is showing no effects in the next 24hrs, she's probably clear. It's certainly an illness nobody needs! But at least someone is talking to you, and Medway still understands she's their patient. Hopefully they will complete their assessment and get a care package put together for MIL to be able to return home, having reestablished some reasonable mobility. Curiously, being in hospital might also be the best place for the council to get its act together in the undesirable situation that reasonable mobility isn't restored. (At least that's the way it seems to operate up here, if an elderly person can no longer live independently.)