Dementia and chest infections

I had never realised until recently just how much a chest infection changes a person with a neurological illness like dementia.



I had a bad one three weeks ago and realised that I was going up the wall, and was doing and saying things that hurt my wife, or at least I did after I did it.



I honestly do not know how this happens but it is hurtful to everyone around, at the time, as we do things which are totally out of character.

I have been diagnosed as having another yesterday, so that must be about the sixth one this year, and its getting me down.



I thought I was alright in the morning apart from being chesty, having a horrendous headache and coughing up loads of rubbish. We then we went out shopping where I went dizzy and ended up hanging on to the shop shelves for security


After a while my wife rang the doctors to get an appointment before they closed for the weekend.

But these people seem to have vastly different ideas, each time you see the doctor that is in the clinic when we go, and this does not help anyone.



Fine I was not being rude yesterday, but if it had started over the weekend my wife would have been stuck.



This is all made worse by the problem that I have had asthma ever since my working days, and I suppose this does not help.



I saw one doctor a few years ago, when I was ill, and had breathing problems, and he was the rudest person I have ever met.



He turned and said, what do you expect with that chest of yours. He told me that there was no infection possibly just a cold, something I knew it was not. But I was asked to do a sputum test just to make sure he was right.



 A few days later we had a telephone call to say that the results had come back, and  I had to go to the doctors for a prescription which made me wonder just what was going on.

I went to the chemists where I was told that that these were very strong antibiotics if there was no problem.



So I never saw that doctor ever again, and will never see he home while I am still about to speak.

That was the second occurrence with him and it will be the last. 



I know that my lungs have been the cause of many problems over the years, from a collapsed lung while I was working to viral pneumonia a few years ago, and after each examination I am told that I have a lot of crackling.


 My wife remembers a few years ago, it being stated that if this carries on I would need a lung examination , something I don't really fancy, but if it sorts it out fine, but why was this not on the records. It seems that they only write certain things on medical records, so if they are not passing items like this on is it any wonder we have problems.


My mother used to say that I had a horrible smokers type cough from the age of three, so my chest must have been bad all those years ago.
 
But just how many people with dementia etc, worked in construction and engineering industries using dangerous products and find they are now paying for it, as well as having dementia



I have worked in many places where asbestos was used, cut and also sprayed on ceilings, and all we had for protection was a cloth mask.



I also worked on many other products which were dangerous, but I guess I never gave it much thought as the information was not there at the time, or it was hidden from us. But these days we see all of this information everywhere we look.



So I guess that I am not the only one who has problems with people like this, but it does not help our loved ones who have to pick the pieces up at the end of the day.