Mums first fall and trip to A & E

Monday 11^th October 2010

I had a phone call from Daphne at the care home to say that mum had a fall and that she was at the A & E at William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, she had gone in an ambulance.  I phoned Michael to get him to go to the hospital and be with her in A & E, he phoned back and said that she had a black eye, she said that her knee had given way and she had lost her balance, they took an x-ray of her knee, they think that she may had a cyst behind her knee, they advised that she be checked by the GP in case she had a black out, she must keep her leg elevated, they told Michael that she would go back to the home by ambulance and that he needn’t stay with her.  

I phoned Daphne after about an hour and she said that mum wasn’t back and she thought that Michael would have brought her back to the care home as hospital transport takes ages to arrange, I phoned Daphne back and asked if it would be possible to arrange for a taxi to pick mum up and the cost charged to mums account, she said she thought that could be arranged and would have a word with the office.

Michael phoned later in the evening and said that the care home had phoned him and said that mum had a water infection and they are getting the GP to see her tomorrow.

Tuesday 12^th October 2010     

We picked mums friend Bett up and took her in with us to see mum, spoke to Daphne about mum as the GP had just left and she said that he couldn’t find anything wrong but he had taken her off her blood pressure tablets and her blood pressure was fine.  He has given her stronger antibiotics to sort out her water infection.

I gave Daphne the appointment card and information from the eye clinic, she said that she would give it to the GP for referral to William Harvey.

Mum looked well apart from two black eyes, which they thought may have been partly caused by her glasses digging into her face when she fell, her knee just had a small bruise and was slightly swollen, the carer has taken her stick away as she must now use the walking frame (she has to be assessed by the physio before she gets one of her own!). She had trouble grasping how to use it. She doesn’t remember anything about the ambulance or the hospital

She was very pleased to see Bett,  Bett took in a photo of  mum with all the ladies from the British Legion she was quite interested in that but unable to say who they were. While we were there the carer came over and said that they thought it would be a good idea to change mums room round and put the bed against the wall instead of the middle of the room as they thought that she may have shuffled around the bed and tripped, we thought that was a really good idea. The maintenance man had changed her room around before we left and we thought that it looked so much better and gave her so much more space to move about in, he also measured up to put mums clock and pictures on the wall which he said he would do tomorrow.

The carer told us that this afternoon they were going to sit mum in the lounge with her foot elevated while she watches the entertainment. We caught Daphne and asked if the meeting with Social Services was still on for the 19^th and she said that yes she thought that it was.  I told her that we still hadn’t had any correspondence from Sharon Hale at Social Services.  Left some money in the office for mums ‘pocket money’

Phoned Teresa and passed on info also phoned Linda for her to tell Michael  

Wednesday 13^th October

As we hadn’t heard anything from Social Services regarding the meeting on the 19^th I phoned them and was told that Sharon Hale was on holiday, they looked in her diary and they told me that she hadn’t written anything in there about the meeting at the care home, they looked through her phone messages and said that there was one on the 28^th September for her to phone care home!.  I told them that we all needed to know if the meeting was on or not, they told me that they would e-mail Sharon Hale and get her to phone me tomorrow.  They told me that it was not like Sharon to not inform them or write in her diary of any meetings

Michael dropped in the keys for mum’s house so that we could take them to the housing association on Friday.

Thursday 14^th October

Sharon Hale phoned to say that the meeting was on for the 19^th and that she DID have it marked in her diary! She said that she had asked the care home to advise us.  I said that I thought that we would have been advised in writing by Social Services.

Text Teresa and told her we would pick her u at 9.45am she said could we pick her up from work

Friday 15^th October

We took the keys into the housing association and got a receipt for the keys