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Elderly parents
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10
SleafordSods · 25/12/2025 11:32

Just had the call. DFIL has sadly died.

Harassedevictee · 25/12/2025 11:59

@GnomeDePlume better for who? I hope you can make the CH do what is really best for your DM.

Harassedevictee · 25/12/2025 12:00

SleafordSods · 25/12/2025 11:32

Just had the call. DFIL has sadly died.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

StillNiceCardigan · 25/12/2025 12:16

@SleafordSods Flowers

Dormit · 25/12/2025 12:42

@SleafordSodsI'm so sorry Flowers

Mumbles12 · 25/12/2025 12:53

@SleafordSods condolences to you and your family.

GnomeDePlume · 25/12/2025 13:56

@SleafordSods condolences to you💐

OP posts:
countrygirl99 · 25/12/2025 14:25

@SleafordSods 💐. A friend's FIL died yesterday, so difficult when everyone else is jolly.

Choconuttolata · 25/12/2025 14:28

Sorry to hear of your FIL's passing @SleafordSods 💐

PermanentTemporary · 25/12/2025 15:22

Oh I’m sorry @SleafordSods - expected but still sad. Hope you are doing ok.

MysterOfwomanY · 26/12/2025 00:35

@rookiemere God no don't feel guilty, enjoy it while they're both there to keep each other company!
Just over a year ago I had plans which require doing all the rellie-visits before or after Xmas. Hah well that's not happening.
Had a successful day going down to my rellie and feeding her. She's still recovering from her chest infection but by and large seemed okay.
Our Xmas now starts tomorrow (looks at time - today - oops - we came home and zonked out ) - we haven't even got a tree up yet.

@SleafordSods the one time you didn't want to be right :(

SleafordSods · 26/12/2025 07:03

@GnomeDePlumeI hope you manage to find a solution. If they insist she gets out of bed for some time can your DM be given some pain relief before they move her? Have they worked with a Phsio and an OT firstly to see if moving her wheb she’s in so much pain is actually beneficial and secondly to find the least painful way of manoeuvring her?

@MysterOfwomanYyou must be so stressed. I hope you get some down time today.

And yes you’re right. I’ve been absolutely convinced he’d go on Christmas Day just around the time everyone used to gather at their house. I don’t know why and yes, I really wish I was wrong.

countrygirl99 · 26/12/2025 19:06

Things have come to a real head. Apparently I should be doing everything because I have a vagina. Blocking has occurred.

countrygirl99 · 26/12/2025 19:08

DS2 has just asked if I'm safe with knitting needles at the moment 😆.

SleafordSods · 26/12/2025 22:07

I’m so sorry @countrygirl99. It’s so hard when your family are being total dicks isn’t it?

Choconuttolata · 26/12/2025 22:22

@countrygirl99 I hope you told him that seeing as by virtue of having golden balls he clearly knows best he can deal with it all from now on.

My DB has been useless today, says my DF sounds fine when he is clearly worse, but I was at work so what he really meant is I don't want to deal with it so I will leave it so it falls to you tomorrow on your day off rather than actually helping as per usual. Also told DH he doesn't think DF is showing signs of dementia despite not seeing him for months. DH asked him how would he know as he doesn't see him!

countrygirl99 · 27/12/2025 00:14

I have not only told him, I've emailed the care agency to let them know that he will need to liaise with him about how to cover the stuff I did. I shall still visit mum but it will be purely social and I'm in contact sensible brother. I forwarded the horrific email I got this evening to him so he's fully informed of what's happened. His opinion of goldenballs is the same as mine but he just ignores his demands whereas Itell him where to go.
According to goldenballs I don't do anything except for the things I do wrong and I don't know anything about anything so should just do what he says because he's perfect. Except he has been spectacularly wrong over 2 major safety issues in the last few days and I was right and only the care company have made him do the right thing.

Mumbles12 · 27/12/2025 06:15

So good that you have a sensible brother too @countrygirl99 . Goldenballs sounds an absolutely misery to deal with. Hopefully your email will shock him.

Dormit · 27/12/2025 09:01

@countrygirl99golden balls sounds insufferable. I’m glad you are looking after yourself. Let him do the work. My sister is blocked after similar issues.

Mum is being discharged home today and I hope they don’t cock it up like last time. The quality of the nursing on that ward is terrible. I’ve got no tolerance for nurses who are asked for pain relief and after an hour still haven’t done it. Some nurses shouldn’t be nurses.

countrygirl99 · 27/12/2025 09:27

I'll never forgive GB for the way he behaved the day dad died. Mum phoned about 4.30 am to say the hospital had rung and dad had died. I got there before 6. DB2 who also lived about an hour away arrived soon after. GB who lived 5 minutes away in traffic didn't go round until the evening despite us phoning several times to say mum was very distressed and asking for him. His excuse was he had a plumber coming about a leak. There were 2 other adults in the house who could have dealt with the plumber. Eventually SIL answered his phone and said he was too upset to come because he'd lost his dad, like me and DB2 hadn't.

Mumbles12 · 27/12/2025 11:12

countrygirl99 · 27/12/2025 09:27

I'll never forgive GB for the way he behaved the day dad died. Mum phoned about 4.30 am to say the hospital had rung and dad had died. I got there before 6. DB2 who also lived about an hour away arrived soon after. GB who lived 5 minutes away in traffic didn't go round until the evening despite us phoning several times to say mum was very distressed and asking for him. His excuse was he had a plumber coming about a leak. There were 2 other adults in the house who could have dealt with the plumber. Eventually SIL answered his phone and said he was too upset to come because he'd lost his dad, like me and DB2 hadn't.

There's really no coming back from that is there...

OldTime · 27/12/2025 11:14

GB is currently with my mum. They have rewritten the events and timescale when my dad died, that I remember and DH confirms, to something unrecognisable.
18 months on and the quite unpleasant for all of his life man has been fast tracked for sainthood.
There's not enough food and drink in a Christmas fridge to stomach that one.

Dormit · 27/12/2025 12:42

The fun and games have begun now mum is home. Six phones calls so far from mum the latest being that she doesn’t know what tablets to take out of her blister pack. The ones they say Saturday lunchtime seeing as it’s Saturday lunchtime 🙄 they’ve given her the bluster pack she went in with plus the new pack from the hospital pharmacy so she says she doesn’t know which one to take. The new one obviously but she said she didn’t know which one that was. The one without our local chemist name on it. She reads out what it says on a pack and asks if that’s the one. How do I know when I’m not there to see it. Her voice is awhile because despite me saying so Kathy times she’s not been given gavisvon 4 times a day and she refused to ring the bell and ask so that’s setting off my
misophonia as she well knows. I can’t be doing with the helpless act when she just needs to stop and think and work simple things out without phoning me straight away. She hung up on me. So that’s fun. They’ve sent her home with no plan for lunch despite me saying there’s no food and I won’t be there. The discharge team are saying it’s not their problem and they have 4 hours to get out to assess her. In the mean time she’s supposed to go hungry. It’s not been a restful Christmas despite her being in hospital. She won’t bloody advocate for herself and defers to me to sort everything so m not doing it anymore. She’s quite capable of doing many things and needs to start. I’ve told her before I’m not doing her thinking for her.

bigbootsweather · 27/12/2025 13:04

@countrygirl99 Sending sympathy. I have had a similar Xmas with my brother. Mum's dementia symptoms (particularly delusions and auditory hallucinations) have become steadily worse over the last few weeks. Brother previously insisted that all symptoms were just a series of unconnected physical problems, misunderstandings or simply didn't happen but a few days before Xmas decided (after she woke him in the night instead of me a few times) that there is infact a problem. So we went very quickly from 'stop telling lies and trying to get doctors to say mum is mad' to 'why hasn't she had a proper assessment yet and why aren't you insisting it's done immediately'.
After many medical appointments to rule out physical causes I have managed to get mum's assessment put on to a quicker track, which I thought would be welcome news for him (mum was happy, she says she wants to understand what's happening and if anything can be done to help).

I thought perhaps we could now have a sensible conversation about mum's care and living arrangements (she says she doesn't care where she lives as long as there are people around her, which I think is actually exactly what she needs). Brother is a very opinionated person at the best of times and has decided that she should not consider a care home (he's told her she will be scared of any carers who are not family/friends) and should move to a smaller place near him. I feel that, using @GnomeDePlume 's wise words, this will be 'solving yesterday's problem' at best- by the time arrangements can be made for this to happen I think her care needs will be greater. I also worry about how she would manage alone in an unfamiliar place and think it could make her decline further- Brother already only lives 10 mins drive from her so I'm not sure how living closer would help either of them. If moving somewhere else on her own is being considered, I have suggested nearer to me might be sensible since I already organise/take her to her many medical appointments and do all her 'life admin'/shopping etc. If she was a few minutes away instead of several hours it would free up time for me to help her more and call in on her daily. Of course, he will not consider any of this.
He called in when I was over helping mum a few days before Xmas and almost immediately started shouting about how I should do more for mum and also for him (this is an recurring theme- he relied heavily on our parents and thinks it is my duty to step in to the role now). This quickly went from passive aggressive comments to mum about 'someone' wanting to 'shove her in a home' to shouting vitriol about me, DH and our DC. When I refused to react, he followed me around the house as I was trying to finish the jobs I was doing and gather my belongings shouting in my face to get out and never speak to him or mum ever again. The whole thing was very frightening. This was far from the first time he has done something like this and the aggression escalates each time. Obviously this is very distressing for mum as well as me so I have blocked him on my phone (I know from experience that this would have been followed up with nasty phone calls) and told them both that I will continue to help mum but can't be around him. I've not done this before, because I really don't want to add to mum's worries but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. His view is that he didn't hit me so I am over-reacting.
He has told mum that he will be looking after her now and she will never see me again, so I have had to reassure her that I will still be there for her. She's been staying with him since Xmas and he says she now can't be on her own at night but he's encouraging her to believe that she also won't cope with any external carers. He's already had her call me several times to say she needs me to do things for her (I can hear him telling her in the background what to say) and I am certain this will not last long (I predict it will end once he's back at work) before he decides he's had enough, sends her home and expects me to sort out the chaos he's created. Mum, of course, thinks he's amazing and won't hear even the gentlest suggestion that perhaps he doesn't have all the answers.

Choconuttolata · 27/12/2025 13:42

Sending strength to all dealing with difficult siblings. At least mine has disappeared again for another six months so can't throw spanners in anything that needs to be done.

Currently sat at my Dad's awaiting a clinician to come and assess him (likely paramedic) no idea when, he doesn't want to go to hospital still. But according to DB he is fine 🤷

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