Hi. I am hoping someone can help point me in the right direction after the very long list of things in the subject. As a bit of background:
My mum (in her 50s) has bipolar disorder and a history of heavy alcohol misuse. She was diagnosed with epilepsy around 6 years ago but this has been pretty well controlled. She nearly died around 4 years ago after a period of depression and very heavy drinking, and it was suggested then that she may have alcohol induced dementia. After a lot of B12 and improved bipolar medications, she made a pretty miraculous recovery and has been completely sober for 2 years. The dementia wasn't mentioned again but she was noticeably more forgetful, repeating stories etc. Generally however she has been ok and has lived and coped independently. She is very isolated. I am pretty much the only family she has and I live hundreds and hundreds of miles away.
Over the past month she has been hospitalised several times as a result of seizures/possible strokes. I only found out about the most recent one as it was a family friend that phoned the ambulance. Previously, she had called them herself and I had not been informed, despite being listed as next of kin. I believe the hospital may have also altered her mental health medications and therefore her bipolar/depression may currently be unmedicated. I can't get a straight answer about this as I do not know what she was taking before to compare. However, she has been quite erratic over the past few weeks when we have spoken on the phone and I can tell something isn't quite right..
I feel that due to her mental health and epilepsy she is not really capable of caring for herself fully. I can't provide care for her - as you can imagine our relationship is strained due to past alcoholism and mental health issues - so please no judgements.
I don't really know where to start or whether I'm doing the right things! I spoke to social services and shared my concerns but they need hospital dr to make the referral for assessment. I spoke to the physio at the hospital and shared my worries about self care and that I feel she needs an urgent dementia, mental health and social services assessments. She was nice but a bit vague. I am waiting for hospital doc all me back to discuss brain scan results. I am also waiting for her gp to call me back as I feel he needs to know that this has all been happening. I'm very concerned that no-one has 'connected the dots' and that she will be discharged again to be alone in her house, with nothing in place and that no-one has spoken to me about it all.
Thank you if you've managed to get to the end of this! Is there anything else I should be pushing for and shouting about?! I feel very helpless and clueless about where to go next.
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Dementia and Alzheimer's
Dementia, alcohol, epilepsy & bipolar disorder!
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birdybirdbird · 25/04/2016 17:10
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