I’m in the emergency waiting room while they assess Mum

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

She’s actually pretty healthy and independent for 82, but possibly too independent. She “didn’t fall but I couldn’t get back up” as she left the hairdresser yesterday. My brother and I got her home and she seemed ok but tired. She agreed with us to phone one of us if she wanted anything or wanted to go out.

This morning I called up to the house and she and her car were gone. She didn’t answer her phone (because she left it in her bedroom). It turned out that she had gone to a funeral that she hadn’t mentioned to us yesterday. She felt unwell there and the ambulance people recommended she come in to hospital because her blood pressure was low and her heart beat was a bit thready and she is dehydrated.

DB and I have confiscated her car keys for the time being and will take turns to stay with her if she’s released from hospital.

I really hope she's OK.

It doesn't sound as though she's broken anything, does it? If she got back up and was able to walk and then could drive today, then hopefully there's nothing seriously wrong.

She sounds really independent - that's really lovely.

Could she stay with either of you during the Christmas period?

Would her home be easy to live in if she has broken anything?

Dehydration can cause low blood pressure. Has she been eating and drinking properly? Some times older people drink less if they are having problems getting to the toilet in time.

She has always been terrible at drinking enough. I was on a three week holiday with her in the autumn and she drank a fraction of what I did and wouldn’t drink any more because she wasn’t thirsty.

She can’t stay with either of us because I have stairs and my brother is in a rental flat temporarily and doesn’t have a spare room. But I’m able to go up to her everyday and my brother is happy to stay overnight for the time being.

It’s turned out to be an ear infection, which is much better than the other things it might have been. So hopefully a course of antibiotics will make her right as rain.

Are you going to give her her car keys back?

Yes, after the antibiotics have kicked in and she's not feeling faint and wobbly any more. But we're also going to take turns being around to supervise her and make sure she takes the antibiotics at the right time, because there are two of them, one three times a day and one four times a day and her short term memory is a bit shit. So if she wants to go anywhere we can drive her.

She has no plans for Christmas eve anyway and DB will drive her to my house for Christmas Day. The doctor said there should be a noticeable improvement within two days, so once the antibiotics are finished it should be all back to normal.

Glad she's ok OP but is does sound a bit questionable she's still driving

I don't have any concerns about her driving when she's not under the weather, we're just temporarily stopping her while she's fighting this ear infection. Even that isn't particularly out of concern about her ability to drive, but more that the exertion of going out is clearly too much for her at the moment. I'd say by St Stephen's day she'll either be fine again or we'll be taking her back for further treatment if the antibiotics aren't having an effect.

My DB stayed overnight last night, and will again tonight. I'm going up in a few minutes to spend the afternoon with her, then tomorrow both of them are coming to my house for Christmas dinner. I've done a little tick chart for her antibiotics because there are two different ones and, of course, one of them is every six hours and the other is every eight hours.