Some more Developments

This post is mostly another updates one, following on from the recent post; Updates and Some Worrying Family News

Nan

To recap, my Nan was in hospital after breaking her right Femur. She spent quite a bit of time in hospital after an operation to pin and plate her leg. She was then placed in a nursing home temporarily (quite far away from her home) to rehabilitate. The physios' aim was to get her to a point where she could mobilise enough to cope back at her Assisted Living flat. Unfortunately the nursing staff (physios, carers, nurses) came to realise that Nan had significant physical needs and was on the cusp of Dementia. She simply had too many needs for a general care package in her old flat. She would need to go into a care home.

Since then, social services have been involved and after a couple of assessments (with a cognitive assessment to be done this Friday), they have decided she needs to be in a Residential home with Dementia specialism. My parents, some of my uncles, and I have arranged to see a number of homes, to see what would be suitable.
My nan wants somewhere with semi rural views, a decent sized room (that she could put a recliner chair in), and a variety of meal choices that are freshly cooked. She did also want to view the homes before deciding which she would like to live in. Unfortunately, time constrictions mean that transport could not be arranged for her to travel that far to different homes on different days. We have collected brochures to show her and are hoping this will be some sort of compromise.
She also wanted to visit her old flat for a week, to decide which furniture she wanted to bring. Again, time constrictions and her health needs meant that this wasn't possible. As well as the mobility problems, diabetes, and suspected dementia, she is doubly incontinent and needs someone to change her pads at various times of the day and night. The care staff at the flat only come in up to 4 times a day and do not make night calls. They also do not do very personal care such as this. As a compromise, I took pictures of all the furniture she'd be able to choose from to take to her new home. Together, we decided what would be practical as well as nice and homely.
Because of certain decisions that have had to be made for her, my Nan believes that we are deciding things without her input and basically trying to control her life. This has made her very distressed, angry, and upset at times, alongside other signs and symptoms of Dementia. We have been doing our best to compromise, involve her where possible, comfort her, and do things to make her happy, but it has been extremely difficult.

We were contacted by the bed management person earlier today, to say that health authority funding for the temporary nursing home placement, will end in a week's time, so it would be best to move her into a permanent placement around the same time. This is of course quite a rush, and at the moment, we are shortlisting the homes we like best, and contacting our favourites to see if a room will be available next week. I will probably blog further, once Nan is in a permanent home, to tell you (my readers) how she is settling in.

My Cousin

Things have improved quite vastly with my cousin. Her general health is much better, but she is still unable to move her legs. She has been working with physios, swimming every day (she is a very strong swimmer) and is now having further tests in London, to establish what exactly happened and what the situation is now. To say this is a relief is an understatement. I know she may be reading this so I don't want to go into too much detail, but long story short, it's looking promising.


Mental Health

My mental health has been up and down, to be honest. I've felt the weight of the world on my shoulders, I've been having some very low days, some very emotional days with bad mood swings, some very anxious/panicky days, and today I've had a very agitated and hyper day. I don't have hypomanic episodes strongly/frequently enough for a Bipolar diagnosis, so I think these episodes are part of the BPD mood swings. I'm still waiting on counselling and desperately needing to talk to someone face to face. I think if things get too bad, I'll call out of hours team. I've spoken on the phone to them before and they were very helpful and kind. I've not had to take Diazepam more than a couple of times in the space of a couple of months, so luckily I still have some left. My GP is very very reluctant to prescribe even a small amount because of risk of addiction and/or overdose. 


Physical Health

Tomorrow, I will be having an appointment with a Cardiologist. This is because I have been very dizzy and having near-fainting spells for many years. I can only recall properly fainting once, 5 years ago, but I mentioned this to the GP before referral, just in case it was relevant. These dizzy and faintness spells are at their worst and usually are triggered by standing up or sitting up for a while. I find overheating, eating carbs, not having enough fluids, or being stressed make my symptoms worse. I find lying down, eating salty food, and hydrating all help, even if just slightly. I will speak about all of this in much more detail in my next post, as well as documenting how my Cardiology appointment went.