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Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things
Comments
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Been there... old booked themselves out
4) Pastures, if your Old can't take the right meds at the right time even with carers coming in, then she really needs to be in a care home. Good luck with persuading her of that - you'll need it. What are her meds for, and what goes wrong (or might go wrong) if she misses them?
It's too "controlling" in there for them.... old can be mobile and has a social life now (when they're not being needy and putting on the aches just to get the Doctors round as it's somebody to talk to).... trouble is, being in a home would be too restrictive for what the old currently thinks their abilities are.
Not taking the meds won't kill the old ... well, not directly. But they are "for life" meds, so are the usual ones oldies take for bog standard stuff like osteoporosis, arthritis, acid reflex. Although we did discover there was a gel the old was supposed to have been using for four months; old was prescribed it just before it all became "on my shift" - and the first thing I did was march the old down the quacks to get the full list of "what's wrong, what's to be taken" from the horse's mouth ... came up with a whole bunch of stuff the old should have been taking for the past 2 years, quack never mentioned the gel..... and the troubles the old has been having for the past 4 weeks are directly related to that ailment and not ONCE has anybody asked "how's the gel been working? isn't the gel helping? do you need more gel?" it was an accident we found out (the old can't remember any such stuff, nor using it before). If that omission had been picked up at the start of my shift the old wouldn't have had their mobility issues, wouldn't have had the ermegency team in, wouldn't have had an army of carers in and wouldn't have cancelled their entire social life I'd spent days researching/investigating/attending and getting the old into.
The original Doc's apppointment should have flagged up the gel; since then it's been all "out of hours" Doctors (mostly flown in from abroad to do the night shifts) and they've all treated the immediate issue and had no access to the old's actual records. Even so, the old's Doctor's had about 6 opportunities/interventions in the past 3-4 weeks where it could have been spotted/asked/tried.0 -
Tried one of those while waiting for the blisters to start.... that was another disaster. The old, no matter how the meds are presented, does one/more of several things:JonnyBravo wrote: »I'm afraid its a very common problem with olds. Disappointing the carers don't manage though.
The problem is sometimes solved by something like this...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Deluxe-7-Day-Pill-Organizer-Wallet/dp/B002Z2B0B4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1322385861&sr=8-3
Not always though, and you can still get olds taking from the wrong day etc.
If you go in every day, another solution is to only leave the meds for the day out and hide/take away all the others.
[1] forgets one
[2] gets one/more out "ready", puts them down, then takes (or not) the med from the original package
[3] takes extra (at one point 2 weeks ago, a Doctor called out in the evening gave the old extra of one of them and told them to take 2 when the condition is worse, so now the old does, but that puts the blisters out of sync).
Can't stop any of those events happening with any known pill box/system.0 -
True ... but most of them are still at the stage where they refuse to accept they are unsafe/unable and need to put into care... and they're allowed this annoying thing called "choice" - and as it's the old's money it'd be darned rude to lock them up AND have them pay for it
Frankly, any old who can't/won't do that, isn't safe/shouldn't be on their tod.
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I've managed to cut it down.... since social services told me to back off, I actually managed to get two days this past week without a visit and without the old phoning meAnd whatever solution is found, it must not depend on Pastures going in every day.
Mind you - I think the old's got the phone numbers confused; keeps phoning my sibling (who is away a lot) and getting their answerphone. I wrote the numbers down on one piece of paper in big letters and I think the old's phoning their number instead of mine as it's laid out:
SIBLING NAME
SIBLING NUMBER
PN'S NAME
PN'S NUMBER
And I think the old is phoning the number above my name .... completely oblivious. That's reminded me, I meant to get a big pen and draw a line between the two when I was there last.... oops, forgot. Never mind.
It's these little things (hundreds of nuggets of cluelessness) that add up.0 -
Why do people switch current accounts?
I've had the same account for over 30 years, only moving now to avoid being transferred to Santander.
Me too. Haven't made time to put any thought into it yet, though, so haven't decided which bank to move to. I want good CS (including over the phone if I have a problem with online stuff), good online banking, and faster payments up to a reasonably large limit. Anyone want to give me any advice?PasturesNew wrote: »Tried one of those while waiting for the blisters to start.... that was another disaster. The old, no matter how the meds are presented, does one/more of several things:
[1] forgets one
[2] gets one/more out "ready", puts them down, then takes (or not) the med from the original package
[3] takes extra (at one point 2 weeks ago, a Doctor called out in the evening gave the old extra of one of them and told them to take 2 when the condition is worse, so now the old does, but that puts the blisters out of sync).
Can't stop any of those events happening with any known pill box/system.
The only way to get the right meds at the right time into an old like that is to have the meds handed over at the time they are supposed to be taken, by a human being who then makes sure they have actually been taken.
It remains to be seen whether you can get that level of consistency of care from carers coming in - usually on rotas that change all the time so you have frequent changes of carers, some of whom are truly excellent, but not all by any stretch of the imagination. Having carers coming in has worked well for my mum because my dad is always there to tell them what to do. However, IMO they would NOT have been an adequate level of care for anyone with any degree of mental confusion who was living alone.Do you know anyone who's bereaved? Point them to https://www.AtaLoss.org which does for bereavement support what MSE does for financial services, providing links to support organisations relevant to the circumstances of the loss & the local area. (Link permitted by forum team)
Tyre performance in the wet deteriorates rapidly below about 3mm tread - change yours when they get dangerous, not just when they are nearly illegal (1.6mm).
Oh, and wear your seatbelt. My kids are only alive because they were wearing theirs when somebody else was driving in wet weather with worn tyres.0 -
It's the "sole task" of one of the carer's, but if the old's already c0cked up various meds, taken extras and taken them before the carers get there and gone diagonally across the pack, it's too late.But PN said:
I think the carers supervisor should be told that the carers need to ensure the meds are taken when they visit.
I suspect also that the carer might say "meds?" and the old will say "had it" - and because the packs are in such random disarray there's no easy way of checking unless (yet again) a whole raft of meds are binned and they start again.0 -
Great idea .... except I can still see many opportunities to get that wrong. Once the lid's opened I could see my old removing several meds "for later", for example - and the fact that holds 28 days' worth means it's useless.Something like this might be more foolproof? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medelert-Pill-Dispenser-solid-lid/dp/B003TSTTHU/ref=pd_sim_sbs_d_1
The only way it'd work would be to have one of those per day, delivered by the milkman before the old gets up (morning carer sometimes doesn't appear until nearly 12) .... and only ONE compartment opening at a time. 0 -
PasturesNew wrote: »I suspect also that the carer might say "meds?" and the old will say "had it" - and because the packs are in such random disarray there's no easy way of checking unless (yet again) a whole raft of meds are binned and they start again.
Bin them, then, as it's a matter of life and death?
The machine I linked to at Amazon dispenses the meds at the right time automatically. That's reasonably fool-proof.No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?0 -
The old wouldn't be able to get the pills out of those compartments, so would probably pick up the box and drop the lot.Bin them, then, as it's a matter of life and death?
The machine I linked to at Amazon dispenses the meds at the right time automatically. That's reasonably fool-proof.
A better design would be a small dispensing tray and the alarm to go off and you press a button and the right ones are dispensed into the tray. It'd need to be filled up by a carer too, old wouldn't be able to get that right.0 -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medelert-Pill-Dispenser-solid-lid/dp/B003TSTTHU/ref=pd_sim_sbs_d_1PasturesNew wrote: »The old wouldn't be able to get the pills out of those compartments, so would probably pick up the box and drop the lot.
A better design would be a small dispensing tray and the alarm to go off and you press a button and the right ones are dispensed into the tray. It'd need to be filled up by a carer too, old wouldn't be able to get that right.
Well, it would need to be filled up once a week. The old person tips the machine up to dispense the meds into a hand/cup. It buzzes until the old person does that, then resets. It's foolproof, apart from the fact that the old person can then throw the tablets away or not take them, or whatever. But, there's no double doses, etc.
No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?0
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