MIL has had pulmonary fibrosis for 7 years, in Nov she had an ‘event‘ (presumed either insufficient or excess oxygen)that put her in hospital for 4 weeks, being discharged to our home with end of life care and a diagnosis of ‘an anomaly on her brain’ ( not as bad as stroke or even mini stroke), insufficient blood flow to the brain and dementia.
In Dec When she came to ours she was only able to walk with a Zimmer frame and somewhat delusional, the diagnosis seemed correct but by Christmas she was only using walking sticks and talking sense and now is walking unaided and pretty much back to normal for someone who requires oxygen 24/7. She is rational but tires easily.
She is pretty comfortable living here, has no wish to return to her own home but wants to be able to drive again so she can go off out socialising without relying on me chauffeuring her or taxis. We don’t want to deny her living what is left of her life to the full but DH works away a lot and I have to juggle my work and sons social calendar as well as hers so can’t take her to every hairdressing, manicure appointment and meal out. The problem is, even before Nov, we were concerned about her driving; she admitted to twice falling asleep at traffic lights and had more than a couple of wing mirror type misjudgement prangs but she refused to give up the car. We really don’t think she should be driving at all now.
As DH understands the rules, once someone is diagnosed with dementia they have to give up driving anyway, even if the diagnosis now appears erroneous. We have booked her an appointment with her GP in a fortnight so he can assess and hopefully tell her what we have said but in the meantime we have had to remove her car from our driveway and leave it at her home so she doesn’t just take it into her head and go off in it. Are we are doing the right thing and are we right that the GP won’t give her permission to drive after the hospitals diagnosis?