MIL 12th hospital admission in 18 months

[Gherkingreen]

Looking for ideas on how to help get MIL the right treatment for repeat infections, which have seen her emergency admitted to hospital 12 times in 18 months. She late 70s, independent, lives alone 300 miles away from us. We've driven to see her today and will visit her in hospital later.
She has a range of conditions and picks up infections that need urgent medical intervention. She's had diarrhoea for 3 weeks now (and latterly vomiting/fever/back pain), tests show no infection, all clear for cancer (tho her white blood cell count is up apparently) they're scanning for a bowel blockage tomorrow.
She's on fluids and intravenous antibiotics but nothing seems to be helping stop the diarrhoea. She's desperately unwell, exhausted with it all and very, very low.

We will speak to the medical team today, as we struggle to get info out of them on the phone. What should we be pushing for, asking them to do/check/test for?

Have they tested a stool sample? FIL was similar, although not for quite as long but he was previously fit as a butchers so no underlying illnesses, turns out he had campylobacter.

@Itsnotthesameasitwas thanks for replying - they've tested stools and nothing found, they're growing cultures now for further testing. They tested for c-diff but came back clear. Will enquire about campylobacter.

Does your hospital have a designated Medicing Of The Elderly team? It might be worth asking if they can assess your MiL.
Sorry, OP. How stressful for you all

*Medicine

Have they tested for calprotectin in stool sample? It's the inflammatory marker.. she could have inflammatory bowel disease like Crohns or Ulcerative colitis? Have they offered a colonoscopy? I would definitely be asking for that if she has had repeated bowel issues..

@BriceNobeslovesMurielHeslop hmm not that I know of but will definitely ask today when we visit. It's terribly hard navigating the hospital system from afar. I've emailed their patient support service and they were helpful with suggesting things to support discharge but not so much while she's in there. Thanks for the suggestion!

@jalu47 she does have diverticulitis but a recent colonoscopy showed a healthy bowel as far as they could see. She's having a CT scan just now so hopefully that may offer some idea what's going on

@Gherkingreen that's good to know. Hopefully the CT scan will shed some light. Hope you get some answers

@jalu47 thank you 😊