Getting the Carers started...

July 2009

I  spoke to Debbie at Town and Country homecare who employ the  carers and informed them that mums pills were starting to be trayed up by the chemist from the next Monday morning and that we had put them in a cupboard were mum didn't use so that she didn't try and take them herself

Social Services Finances came to work out how much mum has to pay towards her carers .It works out at £39.48 per week as she gets £47.10 per week Attendance Allowance which is paid in her bank. We filled out all the necessary forms for the payment to be paid by direct debit .

Mum suddenly decided that she does not want to go to Bowles Lodge for an extra day she only wants to go and Wednesdays so I contacted Bowles Lodge but they said that I had to contact Social Services which I did 

The start of the carers coming went much smoother than we thought and she got used to a couple of them and enjoyed their company and told me that they eat a lot of biscuits and drink a lot of tea!

August 2009

Received the bill from KCC for the carers but had to phone them as the direct debit hadn't been set up as not received the direct debit mandate from Tina Savage, Finance Department at Social Service..

Things seem to be falling into place, but I didn't realise how much organising there had to be done and continued to be kept an eye on.

September 2009

We got a phone call from mums sister- in- law saying that when the carer went into see mum in the morning, mum was laying on the floor and couldn't get up she was covered in mess, she was very confused and could not recall what had happened, she had called Daph (mums sister-in-law) and an ambulance,

When we got to mums house the ambulance was there, they decided to take mum to The Conquess at Hastings I went with mum in the ambulance. 

Mum was asked a lot of questions by the doctors and couldn't answer any of them correctly..some of her answers were very amusing...when asked who the Prime Minister was she said I don't know but I don't like him!

My brother and sister were contacted and they joined me at the hospital. 

We all stayed with mum and got home about 10pm. She stayed in hospital overnight and we phoned and John and I picked her up the next morning.

It was decided that mums blood pressure have dropped too much and the medications that she was taken to lower it were to be stopped. 

We all felt that mum had also a drink problem and had been secretly drinking bottles of whisky which  I found in different cupboards around the house..I spoke to mums doctor about it but she wasn't overly worried about it....

I told mum that the doctors had said that she shouldn't drink with the medication that she was taking and surprisingly she agreed but I kept a careful eye out for any hidden bottles!