Wednesday 16 February 2011

A-ha! Another mystery solved.

With a title like that, there can be only one...


If you recall, in Keep 'em tight, I persuaded mum's GP to make recommendations to mum's care home re: Diet & Exercise. If you also recall, in Well, stone the (expletive deleted) crows!, agency carers were unaware of mum's GP's recommendations. Today, I had this for lunch:-


It's the same picture as in a post below, but it looked and tasted so good that I felt the need to post it again. After lunch, I asked the nurse in charge for mum's care plan.

There was no mention of mum's GP's recommendations in the care plan. I am awaiting a phone call from mum's GP tomorrow to find out what the **** is going on.

Update tomorrow.

EDIT: It's now Thursday 17th February. I received the call from mum's GP. He told the nurse who was in charge that day (Tuesday 1st Feb) to get specific information regarding exercise & diet from me. He doesn't know the name of the nurse who was in charge that day. I will be making enquiries. The book will be getting more entries, with fluorescent pink blobs to highlight them.

Some of mum's blood test results have come in. Her B12 is fine. Her calcium is on the high side, so she can stop taking two Adcal-D3 per day (which she hates as they're like chewing on sweetened chalk). Vitamin D result not in, yet. Two Adcal-D3 per day gave her only 800iu/day.

EDIT: It's now Friday 18th February. I saw a different nurse in charge today and asked her what was going on. She showed me mum's care folder and it contained the letter that I had written to mum's GP. On Wednesday, I was shown pages from the care folder but not the letter. A-ha! The nurse asked me to clarify mum's diet, so I got my green, orange & pink marker pens out and wrote a rough guide as to what mum could eat in unlimited amounts, in moderation and in very limited amounts. I photographed the guide and will be producing a tidy version on Word.

A carer said to me today "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it! Yesterday, your mum used her 3 wheeled walker unaided and found her own way to the dining room". Oh, wow!

Just wait until her Vitamin D status is improved. The last time I did that (in 2008), mum's MMSE score shot up from 14/30 to 26/30. Aricept also helped, but it usually gives only a 2 point increase.

6 comments:

chmeee said...

I'm not surprised in the least. If you really want to know what nurses and other soi disant carers in nursing homes are like, read Tony Copperfield's ( he's a GP )blog in pulse.co.uk. Very cynical, and down to earth. Also very funny. His book is book is similarly marvelous. Highly recommended - if you haven't got the idea by now ! :)

Nigel Kinbrum said...

I still have unrealistically-high expectations, don't I?

I looked at http://pulse.co.uk, but it's a radio station.

Ah, you meant http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/, didn't you?

Galina L. said...

Looks like you are forced to do all communications in writing with your expensive helpers.

You plate looks sort of American because of backing beans. They put the right amount of onions on it.

Nigel Kinbrum said...

Hi Galina,

Your comment went in the spam folder for no apparent reason. I am still training the anti-spam system, much like the care home.

When I finished that meal, there was no pattern left on the plate. Mind you, there wasn't a pattern on it when I started! Jay knows I love onions.

Rob [1ManRiot] said...

Good news to hear about your mum improving Nige.
I'm a sporadic reader of your blog so fear I may have missed a bit, but how did you go about gaining control over your mother's diet through the doctor? Was it a sit down chat were you expressed your wishes or does the doctor have a similar mindset and approach to nutrition as yourself?

Nigel Kinbrum said...

Hi Rob,

You missed a bit! See Polite Requests.

He's a young chap whose speciality is mental health, so he's receptive to new ideas. He knew about Vitamin D and recommended a recent article about it on bmj.com.

Nige.