I went to pick my mother up from rehab and they took her to bathroom before leaving. The CNA couldn't get her to stand, took two people, and also took two people to get her into the car. Luckily I was able to get in out of the car and into the house by myself. We went to eat thanksgiving dinner and she said she forgot how to eat and did not know what the food was. Was afraid to eat it and every once in a while say words I never heard of. It was a terrible day and night.
Just to explain things. She has a history of UTI's. She had gone to hospital with a UTI infection there 3 days then went to rehab for 30 days. 2 weeks ago had another UTI infection. Had a shot for 3 days so I assume it was gone. Now I am afraid she had a stroke or maybe has sepsis. A nurse is coming to the house in afternoon to evaluate her. She has gone downhill since going to rehab. I wish she could of stayed at rehab for a few more days but rehab most likely wouldn't notice anything was wrong.
I am so glad a nurse is coming in today. I hope you get some answers.
If she has good continued care post hospital and rehab, she may be able to regain her memories and her strength. My mom was in and out of the hospital and rehab a number of times when she had congestive heart failure...leading to pneumonia, 6 times over 3 months (until she had a valve replacement at 88 years old) and then more recently for a UTI. UTI's play havoc with an older person's mind for some reason. My mom did come back to her "old" self, thankfully. It took a few weeks. I have all legal responsibility (power of attorney and medical power, also) for my mom, and I say am basically an only child (with a brother who does nothing and lives far away.) I had to form a "team" around me for my sanity. I couldn't do this alone. While my husband listens to my stress, he does some things for my mom like provide her transportation to and from our house from her assisted living home. Most of all, he has assumed a lot of the house chores. I have a daughter who is a nurse who gives me a lot of valuable information of what to say and what to do. I have a brother-in-law who is a doctor in another state who also guides and will call the hospital or home when needed to get people on board with me. My mother's primary care doctor is caring and wonderful.
Word to the wise, if there is a next time, make sure she is in a top-notch rehab facility. Some of those facilities are plain awful: dirty, uncaring, equipment old and failing. They let patients stay in bed all day. I worked with the social worker who was going to place her in a rehab facility because I wanted to choose it. I checked their ratings, visited a few, etc. Do not think you are being a pain in the neck. You are caring for your mom. The rehab facility should not have discharged her if she was unable to do the things she was able to do prior to going into the hospital. There is a list of 6 to 12 (depending on the list they use) activities of daily living (ADL's) that they use about to evaluate a patient when they enter rehab to see what he/she has been able to do independently: dressing, bathing feeding, etc. Did you answer those questions or did your mom? This is how they determine how much rehab they need to do. I made sure I answered because my mom tends to answer what she knows that moment in time. If she was getting worse, you could have transferred her to another facility, and lodged a complaint for neglect, lack of service, whatever you feel caused her to get worse. One facility tried to keep my mom in bed all day.
So you have a nurse coming out to evaluate your mom. Please ask if she can get more labs since your mom is still so disoriented. She may still have a UTI and you do not want to take her out to the lab. Insist on home physical therapy to build her strength. If she is having trouble bathing, dressing herself and/or feeding herself she can qualify for occupational therapy. You are your mom's voice and advocate.
Even though I feel so alone at times in this storm since I do all the leg work, I am lucky that I have a nurse and a doctor in the family to advise me. I am only happy I can pass along some of their advice.
As for Thanksgiving dinner, a few years ago I gave permission for a friend to take my mom out of her NH and spend Thanksgiving with her and her family. (We we’re going out of town). If you went somewhere to eat that Mom was not familiar with, I’m sure she became confused about where she was and that caused her to forget why she was there.
It concerns me that Mom is having mobility issues—what happened at rehab—I’ve been there with my hubby. I know it couldn’t have been easy on you or her. Both of you could be hurt if she should fall. If you need to take her out, can someone be there to help you?
Why DO these things *always* happen over holidays and weekends, when there's nobody about to help?! Just seems to be a law of nature, sigh.
Busy hospital teams are very keen not to admit new patients if they can possibly avoid it; and it is perfectly true that germ-laden understaffed hospitals can be terribly dangerous places for little old ladies. So whatever their reasoning it probably is the best idea in the short term for your mother to be safe at home with you.
Try not to worry, just keep your mother quiet and comfortable until everyone's back at work; and then can you perhaps get her own doctor to come and assess her? And will the nurse come back in the meantime if there are any sudden changes that worry you?
You sound as though you have palliative care for Mom, can you ask them if they consider she might be ready for Hospice. Saying there is nothing wrong with her is plain bull s**t. What they meant was they couldn't be bothered to look any further because she is an old lady with dementia. I frequently question if some of these Drs even went to medical school.
Medicare only allows a certain number of days in rehab so that may be why she was discharged too soon.
All things considered it sounds as though she is better of at home with your loving care.
My mother is still in the hospital which is good News for me. I did meet with a person from hospice. And also got a call from palliative care. They only come once every two weeks. I met them at rehab at my mothers last stay there. I am still leaning toward hospice but I have asked for a neurological consult. I just can't see how someone can go downhill that bad in one day. I still think she had some kind of stroke or they got her test results mixed up. They think the neurologist will be there Monday. A case worker said she will talk to me tomorrow. I will see what she has to say.
Nurse came to house she was shocked how bad my mom was. She said could not admit her to home care(ot,pt) said it was too dangerous. Suggested she go to hospital. Everybody thought she had uti(nurse, paramedics, nurse in hospital) but dr said nothing is wrong with mother. Told dr that I didn't expect her this bad and I have no help he said she could stay in hospital overnight. Problem this is a holiday weekend and can't get hold of anybody. Palliative care won't be back till Monday. Another dr. Didn't want my mother to stay in hospital said it was unsafe with a lot of germs and infections also said hospice won't help need assisted living. Can't understand that there's nothing wrong with her. She was gone downhill in less than a month. I still think she had some kind of stroke but dr said it would show up on cat scan. But had exact same symptoms 5 years ago and ct scan showed nothing hospital thought it was a Tia went back to rehab and a major stroke within hrs. I still can't understand how all this has come on in just a couple or weeks. And major downhill just overnight and yet hospital says nothing is wrong with her hopefully she can get thru weekend and see what decision I can make
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