Everyone who has seen it is impressed with our Sun Room: it has the wow factor.  I will post photographs later in the week.  When Our Key Worker visited yesterday he was very impressed with the facilities we now have at our disposal.

This morning a Risk Assessment will be undertaken by Occupational Therapy to ensure Maureen’s safety in our reconfigured home,  They will also give advice on the best use of the space we now have at our disposal.

Focus Adult Social Care will then need to review our Care Plans.

Maureen is waiting for a bed on the Konar Suite – a specialist unit for dementia.  Consultants have decided to review her diagnosis and monitor her presentation.  They are hoping a bed might become available before the weekend.

The above news came late afternoon, so when Maureen finally lay on the sofa I took the opportunity of taking rest.  I slept on and off until 10 ‘o’clock, an hour before a night-sitter arrived for her eight-hour shift.  When she rang our doorbell I was pleased to see a familiar face who had helped us out on a previous occasion.

Night sits will become a permanent feature of our Care Plan – I have listened to our Key Worker at last!.  We have decided to start with Wednesday’s and move on from there.

At 4 am I was woken by a deafening scream from downstairs: Maureen was scared to find a stranger in the house.  It took a while to settle things down and reassure her she was in safe hands.

Following an early morning conversation with the Konar Suite, I have agreed to monitor how much food and drink Maureen is having.  She has only sipped her first drink of the day after under-consuming yesterday.

I feel rejuvenated this morning following more sleep than I have had for weeks.  I’m also reassured that a complete appraisal of Maureen’s condition is imminent.  Once again, I’m very grateful for the services that are available in North East Lincolnshire – the Konar Suite is a rare commodity.

I made a call to Single Point of Access early this morning to ask our Key Worker to call a meeting of our Multi-Disciplinary Team within the next few days.

I’m sick and tired of contacting professionals who really haven’t got time to talk to me.

I hear there have been discussions but action speaks louder than words.

It may be helpful for busy professiona that there is a Best Interest meeting in the pipeline: probably a month away.

That doesn’t help Maureen and I now!

I have been pressing for a review of Maureen presentation.  This has resulted in the suggestions that a Best Interest Meeting is the way forward.  I’m not sure that a BIM is needed after how she presented yesterday:

• She chatted to staff from the Alzheimer’s Society with ease about future attendance at Singing For The Brain.
• She entertained our six visitors for over an hour and skipped around Cleethorpes Boating Lake arm in arm with them.

Maureen’s presentation will always be a reaction to her environment and how she is being treated.  If living on a building site for three months hadn’t changed her presentation there would be real cause for concern!  Who doesn’t want to get away from it all when your house has been turned upside-down and you no longer know where anything is?

What really needs to be resolved at the moment is:

• Clarity over Maureen’s diagnosis: is it predominantly Alzheimer’s or Vascular Dementia?
• Consensus on where to place Maureen on Teepa Snow’s CEMS Model and the attendant approach to support.
• Adequate support to me as Maureen’s Care Partner.
• A reinstatement of the role of a Care Coordinator.

Maureen was a revelation in the company of her family yesterday.  Once our renovations have been completed and there is adequate room for her relatives to stay I am convinced we will see a very different Maureen.

Now here’s a thing: earlier this morning I reminded Maureen that four of her grandchildren had been here on Monday – she had forgotten.  As I’m about to post she has just said ‘it was a nice day yesterday’ going on to explain how much better it was to be out in the fresh air rather than sitting in the house when visitors are here.  Such comments give me hope that neuroplasticity is fact rather than fiction!

We had a great day yesterday when Maureen was amazing.

She is game for an adventure this morning so we are off on one.

On some days you just have to go for it!

More details later……

It took three heating engineers to replace worn out radiators yesterday.  Maureen must have realised there was no gain without pain and ended up serenading them with Happy Talk as they worked around her in the lounge.  This was a very different Maureen to the one they had heard earlier when she let rip at Girl Tuesday accusing her of all sorts of misdemeanors.  I joked with the owner of the company that we wouldn’t charge him too much for helping his men to become dementia friendly.

The men will be here shortly to start the process of bringing water to our shower room and heating to the Sun Room.  They will be joined by an electrician at noon who will begin his first fix.  If everything goes according to plan the New Wing of our Care Home might be completed in two weeks.

Our heating system is pressure sensitive if it falls below 0.5 bar it will cut out.  That is an issue that we can now put behind us as our central heating is better than it has been for years.  Outdated radiators have been replaced and with most other things in hand concerning our extension, it is time to focus on the approach to supporting Maureen.  I need to keep the pressure on for clarification on her diagnosis: is her dementia predominantly vascular or  Alzheimer’s?  There also needs to be a consensus on a treatment plan that is streets away from Prescribed Disengagement (Swaffer).  I only wish I had another two good men or women at my side!

The other area where I need to keep the pressure on is to encourage family members to visit more often.  Maureen was a revelation when her brother and sister in law were here yesterday.   She loved talking about the good old days and being with people who she knows love her dearly.  They are popping in again this morning before their homeward journey to Nottingham.