pje16 wrote:Is your Mum ok now
Thanks for sharing
My dad's 91 and messed his hip 3 years ago with fall and that hampers his walking now
Apart from that he's fine, just had his booster so that makes me feel a bit happier
Generally she's fine. She has quite severe osteoporosis so they had to peg and pin rather than replace the hip joint but that seems to have worked well, no pain, mobility is OK ...etc. The main issue are here knees that ideally would have been replaced years back but again osteoporosis prevented that, so she gets around but not as actively as she used to when <88 (when she was still line dancing, daily going off out and around the shops alone etc.). Frailty type more recent mobility making her more house-bound unless assisted. Main factor now is dementia. Mild at present but likely to worsen. Again generally OK, she knows us all etc. but short term memory is relatively poor (long term memory is fine).
In more normal circumstances she'd likely be best in a care home, with morning pick-up's and evening drop-off's, but under Covid even a single outing meant having to isolate for 2 weeks with no visits upon return, worse than imprisonment so not really a option. So as is I do 8am, 11am, 1pm, 4pm, 8pm and midnight daily drop-ins, sometimes on bad days staying all day/night. Fortunately we're just 'down the road' from one another and I'm widowed and recently retired (at age 60). Only child so its all on me but with fallback that my two 20-something single sons who have returned home since Covid could step in to fill gaps. In truth I can cope as-is but would struggle if things were more intense such as if she needed 24/7/365 assistance/care, so ultimately its either ultimately a care home or grim reaper future. 'Hopefully' the latter as she'd rather be at home i.e. hopefully I can continue to care for her at home until the end.
Don't know whether the onset of dementia was natural or Covid induced. Lockdowns and isolations took their toll and had her screaming mad at times that I suspect might have been the cause of her vascular dementia (massive swings in emotions literally blew her mind).
Thanks for asking.