FIL refusing to get out of bed

patchwork_cat

You say he doesn't bother taking his medications regularly. I don't know if you have ever suffered or been in pain, but you do remember.

Is it an attention seeking thing, do you think? Alternatively is he depressed suffering from a sort of agrophobia. Agrophobia begins because someone has a panic attack ( eg) in a public place, they then believe that it is the public place that gave them the panic attack and if they don't go out they won't get a panic attack and it is self fulfilling. I believe this is in very simple terms and obviously life and mental health is much more complicated, but that is how someone explained it to me.

Does he think he will collapse if he gets up, but if he doesn't get up he won't collapse? Can he just not be bothered with it all anymore - is it a form of depression. Whatever the reason it is upto the Dr and their team to evaluate and you to support, so pass it back to them.

Mojisola

dandy-candy wrote: »

He went for a series of weekly tests/assessments in January, so it was recently.

That would have been before he had this last chest infection - that may have changed things.

Dunroamin

dandy-candy wrote: »

I don't understand why they won't either. I thought it was normal for people with emphysema to end up on oxygen but the doctor said it can do more damage??

He really needs to see a specialist or at least to change his doctor! That attitude is years out of date and may be influenced by the cost of providing oxygen.
Do you have any idea what his oxygen saturation is - does he have a pulse oximeter?

patchwork_cat

You say he had a sort of fit. What did A&E say was the fit - did they evaluate him for a stroke?

jackieb

Maybe he's depressed on top of everything else.

I know my aunt needs humidified oxygen as normal oxygen is too dry for her, and she can't get this at home. She only gets it when she's admitted to hospital.

daska

When mum went to bed we tried everything. We even employed a private physiotherapist in an attempt to get her to sit up. The Physio told her, the GP told her, SS told her, we told her, the only thing that worked was getting a friend to come to lunch - she sat up at the table in the spare room for 20 minutes, but only because she would have been mortified for a friend to visit her in her bedroom! Would he be embarrassed if a friend found him still in bed? Or is there anything similar you can think of that might persuade him to move?

But during our search for anything to use as leverage or encouragement I discovered some research stating that, for elderly people to recover the body tone they had before they went to bed, it takes 3 weeks for each day of bedrest.

You really do need to get him to the specialist asap and gear up for some tough love.

Dunroamin

jackieb wrote: »

Maybe he's depressed on top of everything else.

I know my aunt needs humidified oxygen as normal oxygen is too dry for her, and she can't get this at home. She only gets it when she's admitted to hospital.

That's surprising - most oxygen concentrators come with a humidifying attachment that can be used if needed.

Dunroamin

I've just realised that you haven't said whether he's still smoking. If so, this might be the reason that he hasn't been prescribed oxygen.

jackieb

Dunroamin wrote: »

That's surprising - most oxygen concentrators come with a humidifying attachment that can be used if needed.

I wondered about that, but it's what she was told - also her daughter-in-law is a GP so i'm pretty sure if the type she needed was available then they'd know about it.

Blackpool_Saver

he is probably afraid of being around people incase he gets another infection, GP's shouldn't be relied upon to make decisions when someone is SO ill, he needs to see a lung specialist, does he have a nebuliser etc ?