What do you do if your parent is bedridden and must use a wheelchair or stretcher to go to any kind of doctor appt?

Before mom went into the NH we found a podiatrist who made house calls. Medicare didn’t cover it since she wasn’t diabetic, so I just paid for it. I think it was about $60 per visit but Priceless to me. If your jerk of a doctor won’t even examine her in a wheelchair ( like the NH podiatrists do!) I’d get a different one.

Medicare will pay for a podiatrist to come to the house. I use a visiting nurse and physicians service for my mom's care.

There comes a time when we have to look at our Doctors and see if we still need them.

On a hospital visit itcwas found Mom had a thickening in her upper stomach. Had to see a specialist to determine if it was cancer. No, probably caused by her acid reflux. But we went every six months and then a year. When there seemed to be no change, her Dementia was getting worse and she was in an AL, I stopped seeing him. She had graves disease. Again a specialist. After a couple of years it seemed to be under control. By this time she was in LTC. Specialist said as long as the facilities dr. Tested her ever so often and her numbers were good he wasn't needed. He was also 45 min from her NH. Then there was her urologist. She had bladder cancer at 80. He was still at 87 doing scopes on her oncevavyear. With her Dementia we would never had put her thru the Chemo u need to go thru. So, I chose to stop him. There are things u need specialist for but after ur stabilized I think a PCP can continue monitoring.

I'm only asking this out of curiosity - what do the staff at this *fantastically* useless doctors' practice suggest you do? Really, are they just literally standing there like cans of corn saying 'we can't help with that'? Unbelievable. Or at least I wish it was unbelievable.

Find a doctors' service that will make house calls and fire that lot. Meanwhile, take a good picture of your mother's nail on your phone, take it your friendly local pharmacist, and ask.

By the time my mother was literally bedridden only two things would have made me force her out of the house: one was an echocardiogram, which still seemed like a good idea at the time (though looking back I'm not so sure); and the other would have been, but by the grace of God this didn't happen, any injury requiring sutures or reduction. For anything else, I'd have asked them to come to us; and I'm more grateful than I can say for all the dedicated and resourceful people we had to call on.

But! - don't give up :) If you'd like any help with finding resources, try your local Area Agency on Aging or do very specific online searches. Remember, you are *never* the only one who needs the kind of help or service you're looking for, and the odds are good that some practitioner will have spotted the demand.

When doctor visits become so overwhelming and my mother seemed to need every kind of doctor in the world, then I felt it was time for hospice. One day she was panicking and saying she needs this and she needs that from all her doctors and then even added a few more problems that needed medical attention and more doctors, I called her primary care physician and asked him if he felt she could use hospice. We had been in and out of the ER recently and he took all info into consideration and referred us to hospice. With comfort care from hospice, she is doing better, but is still eligible for their services. I just couldn’t keep up with everything anymore. Hospice keeps her good and so far we haven’t had to go out of her house for any doctors except the audiologist and skin doctor. She is not on hospice for skin cancer. (But she should be). That’s another day. Hospice supplies all medications and all equipment t my mother needs to help her.

Please inquire about hospice or at least palliative care.

Your mom has many challenges. My mom has Parkinson’s too. With Parkinson’s you can’t second guess either. Mom’s neurologist and primary care doctor always says not to hesitate to take an ambulance to the ER with different or new symptoms. I recently had to do this. She did stay in the hospital for several days for observation and tests, then moved to the nursing home for skilled nursing rehab. Now on home health. Mom’s roommate was wheelchair bound and was doing a rehab program too. You never want to second guess and have the situation become worse. The elderly are always dealing with new issues that have to be addressed by medical professionals. When my mom went to the hospital she couldn’t walk.

My mom uses a walker and can no longer get on exam table either. Can’t they elevate her legs onto a stool of some sort?

My mom had the fungus thing before. What about home health? Ask if it will be covered under home health and if it is something a nurse can treat. The nurse mom had with home health treated certain skin issues. They may not but worth asking about. Medicare pays for home health.

There is a cream for it. Ask your pharmacist also.

Best wishes for you and your mom.

My mother can NEVER tell you what's wrong with her, exactly, or where it hurts, or what she wants, or doesn't want, etc. etc. So I let her be. I figure if things are REALLY bad and she's REALLY hurting or in need of medical attention, she will be able to verbalize what's wrong. She has dementia, but she's not that bad.........trust me when I tell you she can verbalize everything ELSE that's on her mind, just not what she's ASKED to verbalize.

Toenail fungus is NOT something I would worry about or schedule a doctor's visit for. Palliative care is called for at this stage of life, in my opinion, and the only time mother needs to see a doctor is if she's very ill, obviously so. She lives in Memory Care and I've hired the in house doctors to care for her. If/when she needs more urgent care, I have an ambulance sent for her to take her to the ER, and an ambulance to take her back to Memory Care. She's wheelchair bound, I should add. When my dad was wheelchair bound & I had to take him to the urologist, they pulled the same nonsense with me about only taking out his staples (from hip surgery) if he was on the table, and gee whiz, we sure CAN'T help you get him ON said table. We don't even have a walker for him to use!! I swear I almost had a heart attack that day from the sheer stress of that doctor's visit. From that point on, there were ONLY in house (in ALF) doctor visits for Dad, and now the same for mom.

When Dad was alive & they both lived in Independent Living, I hired a geriatric doctor that made house calls. It was SO MUCH easier......they'd even order traveling xray companies to come out if needed, and the same with nurses to draw blood. It's just TOO MUCH to try and transport your mother anywhere in the condition she's in. The other thing I've done (recently) is hire a wheelchair van to take my mother from the rehab facility to the Memory Care facility on the day she was moved in. It cost me $100 to have her driven 4.0 miles, but hey, I thought it was worth it b/c it was 100% stress free.

I would choose my battles here........in other words, use your own good judgment to determine when your mother truly needs ER attention and when she just needs plain old attention. Otherwise, YOU are going to have a heart attack yourself!

Best of luck!!

I tried to get phone or Skype consultation with Drs office for mother. Every time, they would tell me to "bring her in" (cuz of liability fears). Also, "house-calls" (by Drs or nurses) should be provided by every insurance company, for elderly urgencies. With our aging population, its downright stupid the way services are provided in the U.S. it would save money to help us avoid unnecessary transport or E.R. visits. (My mom frequently needed hydration, which could have been done by I.V. at home, saving thousands). There's no reason labs ect, can't be done at home, if patients are deemed eligible. Maybe I just had the wrong insurance co.

First off, toe nail fungus is rarely an issue. Yes the toenails look nasty, but it is not life threatening. So why are you worrying about getting her to the Podiatrist?

Second, the treatment for toenail fungus is oral or topical Rx medicine. The topical does not work well at all, it is more of a placebo. The oral ones is very expensive has to be taken for a long time to be effective and likely would not be appropriate for your mother based on other health concerns.

Yes, I worked for a group of Podiatrists for about 10 years. I am not a medical professional, but you do pick up knowledge from the pros.

Do you have Foot Care Nurses in your community? We are lucky to have them in many Canadian communities and they are far more likely to do house calls. The Podiatrists I knew did some house calls too.

The doctors often worked with patients who could not get out of their wheelchair and although it was not ideal (wheelchairs are not sanitary), they would work on their knees to trim nails etc.

Some swear by Tea Tree oil to help clear up fungal infections, there are other 'home remedies', nut when you have an elder with multiple medical issues, generally it is best to leave it alone. You could cause more issues trying to clear it up, than the fungus ever will.

Goodness, many professionals in our health care system seem to have lost empathy for patients!
I would think there would be extra people to be called for help in moving patients onto tables etc. Of course I also know many times they are worried about liability.
I have no advice for you. Just wanted to say how disappointing it is to see a profession that is supposedly human oriented w little care about patients.
BTW, I teach preschool and many times have had to deal w bodily fluids. I put on gloves and deal with it.