Help with Ecoli

[BitterSweetSympathy]

Looking for some help and advice on how to support an elderly relative as she with Ecoli.

She’s been ill for a week. She had a nurse visit today. The nurse checked her over, took some samples and asked if she wanted to go into hospital (my aunt declined).

Some rehydration sachets were given, as was advice to keep drinking lots of fluids and to contact them immediately if she feels worse.

My aunt lives across the country from me so I can’t get to her (I also have a suppressed immune system so couldn’t safely go to stay with her at the moment).

I’ve had Amazon deliver lots of soft drinks (and also some probiotics for when she starts to recover). The nurse spotted the soft drinks and told my aunt to drink those as well as water.

She does have supportive friends locally who will give her help if she asks. I had to kind of badger her a bit into phoning the doctor, so the asking for help is the bit I’m worried about.

She is in her early eighties and lost her husband of nearly sixty years a few months back so I fear this will knock her pretty hard.

I do understand her reasons for not wanting to go into hospital (she doesn’t want to risk getting Covid as she has read levels are rising again and also the recent loss of her husband there is weighing on her mind/being an emotional block).

Any suggestions of how to help?

I’m sorry to hear about your aunt. I’m afraid I had to go to hospital and be put on a drip when I had Ecoli as I could not keep fluids in.

Sorry you had to go through that. I asked to her to keep an open mind about going into hospital if she gets worse.

I didn’t want to push it any more at that point in case she shut off, especially as I had already pushed a bit over contacting the doctor.

But you confirmed I’ll need to gently mention it every time I phone.

Really hope that your aunt is feeling better soon.

@PammieDooveOrangeJoof

She is feeling a bit better today and managed to eat something.

I’m on the FaceTime in the background with her during nurse visits.

Her practice nurse came to see her in the morning to do another blood test and again said she go to hospital as she is very dehydrated.

She again refused to go but did ask if they could do anything to support her at home. The nurse said she would find out and she’d be back tomorrow with results and do another blood test.

Then community/district nurse came early afternoon to check on her. She knows the local community nurse team quite well as they visited her late husband regularly for two years whilst she was his carer.

They’ll be checking on her regularly. I think they’ve got quite a lot of time for her because she looked after her husband so well and I also suspect she provided many cups of tea and biscuits over the years.

So I feel a lot more confident that it’s going to go as well as it can.

By the way thank you.

Sorry just caught up with this. How is your aunt getting on @BitterSweetSympathy

Thank you for asking. She’s been prescribed antibiotics today to deal
with the infection as she isn’t keeping food or even water down anymore.

She has a different doctor and this doctor is even more worried about kidney failure based on subsequent blood tests. I think this doctor has managed to get through to her better than the previous one.

She is now more open to going into hospital, and has said she will go in tomorrow if she hadn’t improved by then. Her friend has offered to take her.

Yes hospital is the way forward. I literally felt the life coming back into me when I was on the drip.
I was also on antibiotics for a long time afterwards so it may be a longer recovery than expected.

Thank you, that is very heartening. I’m sorry you had to go through that.

@PammieDooveOrangeJoof

Thank you again because told my aunt what you said about feeling the life come back to you when you started in the drip.

It made her feel a lot less nervous about going into hospital. She’s just waiting to go in now.

How is your aunt @BitterSweetSympathy ?

She’s doing ok now. They couldn’t find a bed for her though. Luckily later blood tests came back showing she was out of the danger zone for kidney failure. The tests they did initially also came back and showed it was camphylobacter rather than ecoli (they suspected that at first given the current outbreak).

The antibiotics seem to be working well for her and she is eating again. Someone is coming every few days to keep drawing blood and she is having a phone call every day for her progress.

She’s very tired but is for once listening to people who tell her to rest and put her feet up or watch a box set in bed.

Thank you for asking, and hat is very kind of you.

I’ve been following this thread and I’m pleased to hear that your relative is slowly picking up and feeling better.

@Nectarinesarenice thank you!

Really pleased to hear that your aunt is on the mend!