To cut a long story short, mum had a stroke a couple of days before her 75th birthday, following her second admission for a fall. Mum is now back at home with a hospital bed and a special chair. She gets four daily visits from carers as she has lost all her independence. I’d say she’s lucid around 20% of the time, though her memory for the past is impeccable. The rest of the time she seems to spend in a hallucinatory world, and conversations can be challenging as it’s all very real to her. She lives alone and I live 2.5hr ride away, my brother lives a 2hr drive away. I can only really get to see her once a week at best. I’m here primarily to gain insight on how best to support her in terms of staving off boredom, keeping her engaged, and exercising that quirky brain of hers. I’d love to take her on day trips but, unlike my brother, I don’t have access to a car, and I think she’d object to being bungeed to the pillion seat of my bike (not to mention the fact that her late TT racing cousin put her off bikes for life, as a teen!). I should also add that mum is wholly aware of her situation as she used to be the senior Sister in charge of a neurosurgical unit back in the day. This did make explaining the nuts and bolts of what had happened to her much simpler.
5 Likes