First of all, a big thank you to everyone who's been supporting me through this "stuff" with my Mum. Your wisdom and support is much appreciated and may well be what will get me through this in one piece. OH has been/is being wonderful but it's such a relief to be able to offload on here.
After my "meltdown" yesterday - probably much needed, if only as stress relief
- I'm feeling a bit better today, despite getting less sleep that I'd like.
Posting on here - and reading your excellent advice - really helped, as did OH's reassurance that I'm not alone in this (although he appreciates that it's easy to feel as if I am.) He suggested that I speak to Mum's gp about my worries about her memory and also offered to come with me when I visited today.
Him being there really helped; she loved seeing him and he chatted to her while I sorted out her tablets etc. His mum had also just been round so Mum was benefiting from that too. He said afterwards that he didn't think that she was much worse than before and that he thinks that she's definitely better off there for as long as possible, especially as she's starting to get out and socialise - she was walking over to their community centre this afternoon to watch the bowls and to have a cup of tea. He appreciates my concern, though; it's just more upsetting for me and I know that he's the same with his dad, whereas I'm able to cope better with him.
Just a case of being a bit "too" close, I suppose.
I spoke to the gp this afternoon and got up to speed. He's great - and it really helps that he can access everything on the computer there and then. The district nurse says that the boil on her back is nearly healed - still checking it weekly. The gp had ordered some extra tests - she's clear for diabetes but is slightly anaemic. However, he explained that it's what they term "age-related anaemia" so wouldn't be helped by extra iron as she's not actually iron-deficient. They're keeping an eye on the MRSA. He doesn't feel that there's any obvious explanation (like a urine infection) for her confusion so thinks it's likely that it's dementia of some kind and I agree with that. He's referred her to the hospital for assessment but requested that they come to her bungalow if possible. Once we have a diagnosis there might be some treatment which will help a bit but more importantly, it will allow us to access various support packages and services which are only available once you have an official diagnosis.
I've started this thread because it really helps me to be able to "get it all out" and I thought that it would be nice to have a place for us all to talk about our situations/experiences if we want to.
Bette x