Advice welcomed please on dilemma with my vulnerable mother

[Growlybear]

I've got a real dilemma and would be interested to get people's advice. My mum is 93, disabled, with various health conditions, takes warfarin, and has quite severe dementia. She lives an hour's drive away and has two visits each day by the District Nurse to administer medication. She is very stubborn and refuses to have any other help. In anticipation of the stricter social distancing requirements, I made sure my mum was well stocked up with food at the end of last week, and have managed to get a couple of grocery orders booked for her. My husband has COPD and so is reasonably vulnerable, so we had settled down follow the guidance and had only planned to drop groceries off at my mum's doorstep in the coming weeks if absolutely necessary.

My mum was rushed into hospital on Monday morning with a major bleed (warfarin related), so I spent much of the day in hospital with her, keeping as much of a distance between us as possible, wearing a mask, gloves, and constantly using sanitiser. A&E were brilliant and moved her to a ward very quickly and I was extremely impressed with the measures the hospital had put in place. I had to collect my mum last night, and took her home, again being very careful with precautions, although there was nothing I could do to keep a proper distance between us in the car.

My mum has to have her blood checked regularly to determine the amount of warfarin she needs to have, and in view of the bleed she had earlier this week, it's likely that she will need to be checked on Monday. I usually take her to the clinic, but have told the warfarin nurse that I'm very concerned about doing this at present for a number of reasons. The guidance is that we should keep a distance from elderly and vulnerable people and that it's OK to drop off groceries but not to enter someone's house, my husband is in a vulnerable group, and I'm also concerned that, no matter how stringent the hospital was with precautions, my mum or I may have been exposed to the virus over the last three days. However, the warfarin nurse is adamant that I need to take my mum to the clinic despite all of my concerns, and despite having to take her in my car. I have a very small car, and my mum couldn't get into the back to give us a bit more distance, so there is no option but for us to be in very close contact during the journey.

Am I being unreasonable in insisting that the warfarin nurse makes a home visit (which she has done in the past and is still doing for other housebound patients)?

[Pugwash]

From previous professional experience in the social care area, I had many clients who were on warfarin and the district nurses were the one taking blood on a regular basis. If there were concerns the DNs would liaise with GP and Warfarin clinic. Would your mother's GP/Surgery Nurse be willing to do this in the short term?

[Growlybear]

I've just had a call from the warfarin clinic and thankfully they have now agreed to do a home visit.

[womanofdulwich]

👏🏼👏🏼

[Sue]

Really glad it's sorted, what a worrying situation.