Hi there.
Hope you are all well.
I’ve posted previously about my mother who suffured a stroke end August and is now home (4 1/2 weeks now).
She is 83 and was my father’s carer (86) who has advanced Parkinsons. He also deteriorated and was admitted to hospital a week after my mother. We believe the mental and phsycial stress of caring for my father caused her high blood pressure which was a key factor in her stroke.
As I say my mother has been home 4 1/2 weeks and is getting great support from the Stroke Team. She did however suffer immense loneliness with carers just visiting 3-4 times a day.
My father was brought home week before last on a re-enablement package so he has OT’s coming in over 4 weeks assessing him and what his care needs might be.
Whilst on the one hand his presence home has helpd stave the loneliness, it’s created another set of problems (which both my sister and I foretold to the authorities to try and avoid), in that Mum isn’t able to focus on herself anymore and rest. And it’s interfering with her recovery.
For example, he can’t get his head how the microwave works - this is causing my mother stress even though she no longer has any care responsibilities. Added to that his movements at night are impacting her sleep.
For the first time today, she has admitted to stress, and I’ve seen her take in sharp intakes of breath.
So I’m concerned - and I’ve flagged this to Mum’s stroke team. I really don’t know what to do here. Dad isn’t a bad person, and is still of sufficient mental capacity to make his own decisions (including the decision to come home), but it is impacting my mother, and we are going back to the situation at hand before but worse so, as now my mother is incapacitated and in recovery and hence more vulnerable.
Any advice would be very helpful and appreciated.
Thanks, Ian