Caring for mum with heart failure...

[Angette]

Hi. This is my first post on here. I am helping care for my mum with some of my family members. Between us we are caring for my mum 24/7. It has been very difficult covering all the day and night but we we are trying to get a care rota that we can all cope with. At the moment I am caring 5 nights a week 8 pm til 10am the next day plus any other cover that's needed.

My mum sleep in the living room and I sleep in the same room on a mattress on the floor. To keep amn eye on her.

The main problem at night is that my mum cannot lay back on the pillows and is either rocking forward all night or folded over so that her face is buried in the duvet on her legs. This looks very uncomfortable and is very dangerous as she has several times fallen out of bed while she is rocking.

Could anyone tell me if this is normal of someone with heart failure and/or is cf there anything I can do about it

Thanks for your support.

L p

[stevejb1810]

My mother is in her 80s, has stage 3 heart failure and stage 3 kidney failure and lives on her own. She lives in a 2 storey house with the bedroom and only bathroom, upstairs. It can be a struggle, we’ve had the odd emergency but generally she manages on her own.

While I’m not sure that there is a ‘normal’ in these situations, I would say your situation is on the outer edges of normal, bordering on extreme. I think you should see the GP to get a bit more info and maybe an adjustment in your mother’s meds to see if it helps.

[Angette in reply to stevejb1810]

Thank you Stevejb

My mum is 88 and We vhave told the doctor and nurse about this, and have got very little support back . They have put her on a low dose of morphine to help her relax and sleep at night but that doesn’t stop her sitting up and rocking all night or falling asleep with her face in th duvet .....She seems to sleep more peaceful and still like that but then I am not sure if she is even breathing .

I am not sure what stage she is in . We asked when she was in hospital but they wouldn’t tell us .

She is moanng most of the time too , as if she is in pain ( but she says she isn’t ) . It really upsets me emotionally to hear it through the night .

She is asleep most of the time and struggles to use the commode which is beside he bed .