Post #80: Mother-in-law and Palliative Care

My ninety-one-year old Mother-in-law is now receiving palliative care. She's bed-bound following a bad break of her fibia back in 2012, lives in a care home and has suffered from vascular dementia for the past few years. So, considering she'd been an active shopper well into her eighties, it's been a sad decline ever since.

My mentally and physically disabled fifty something brother-in-law had been living in council accommodation with her until 2015, but the situation, even with live-in care had been untenable for years as her moods and truculent personality had made his life a misery. He's in another form of residential care himself and seems much happier.

Post #69: Caring For Elders & Helping Others

If you know me (and quite frankly, I'm an online presence, so why would you?) You'd be aware of my family's care back story, but in a nutshell, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law are both now in residential accommodation following quite a few stressful years of juggling their care needs with the various agencies/social services/Uncle Tom Cobley etc, within their former flat. It was so much fun that it pretty much ended my husband's career (he took early retirement) and ruined his health (he's got tachycardia now.)

Anyway ... MIL is ninety-one, has vascular dementia and is no longer eating. So, I'm up in London today and I'll pop in first thing and help her. I'm also seeing a friend for lunch, a former colleague who suspects that one of her daughters may be on the spectrum. I do hope that I can help.

Post #17 - Hospitalised Relatives and A Missing Cat

I won't got into great detail about the background of my family situation, but in a nutshell, my husband has a 90-year-old mother with Vascular Dementia who is now in a residential home and a mentally and physically disabled brother who is in sheltered accommodation.  I explain much more in another of my blogs, Caring For The Carers: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=744390122599049054#overview/src=dashboard

On Monday afternoon my husband received a call from one of the carers in my brother-in-law's (BIL)'s sheltered accommodation stating that the latter had experienced difficulty breathing and had been taken to A&E at a north London hospital.  He was later admitted; hubby went to see him on Tuesday and my BIL was hooked up to masks, tubes and all sorts - he seemed quite sick.  The Doctor stated that he had fluid in his lungs and his scolosis was making it difficult for his lungs to operate effectively. 

This morning my MIL's care home rang hubby to state that she wasn't well, was refusing to leave her room and becoming more aggressive and at other times, tearful.  We agreed to write a detailed account of her medical history to date, like we did with my BIL.

To top it all, my youngish black and white cat Sophie's gone missing.  I've long wondered whether she was getting her Felix elsewhere, but we haven't seen her since we put her out last night.  Apparently the insurance states that you have to contact the Vet within five days of disappearance.  She's chipped and was vaccinated recently.  Pah!