How long does your parent with alz sleep?

They say that they will sleep more as time goes on but it sounds like the medications may be helping you out. Woo hoo! That's great! I have to keep my 94 year old mom busy all day so that she will sleep at night. She heads to bed at about 9:00 pm and gets up around 6:30 am (she doesn't actually sleep all that time). During the night she gets up and goes to the bathroom several times.

94 omgosh!! Does she have dementia? My Mom used to get up to go the bathroom, then she used to get up and pee on the floor thinking it was he bathroom, now she has depends on. I too try and let her cat naps 5 minutes or so only so she will sleep at night. She has busy days at daycare often but not always. Thanks for writing.

At 94, Mom is not yet incontinent although we have changed her over to Depends because her pants were always soiled. It's been a trial moving her to the Depends because she goes to the bathroom quite often but still makes it there. Advice by both an RN here and her doctor was to change her to Depends before it got worse because time will just make it harder to transition. I hope by the time she is incontinent, she will quickly forget how to use the toilet!

Hi, I dont understand why it would be good for her to quickly forget the toilet? My Mom is incontinent and has been for some time now. But, the breathing she does when a BM is coming alerts me and she tells me something is wrong. I get her into the bathroom usually 1/2 day thru it and its a big help. When she makes it, its great, but thats me that is trained, not her. At daycare , and I hear also in nursing homes, they take them to the bathroom every 2-4 hours even when completely incontinent as it helps them, and their skin from breaking down. The urine smell is so difficult, I use the liquid vaginal gel cleaners on my Mom for sensitive skin to help, but bathroom duty is always there no matter what. Thats how I change her clothes as she sits and wash her peri areas down too, I cant imagine not ever using the toilet. I think you will see that when you come to that point? Its difficult , but easier to catch it.

I see what you mean. Not having been there yet, I was thinking differently. Although I worked in a nursing home years ago, I'm learning much of the caregiving a day at a time. I learned a lot from Daddy's Alzheimers also but he went from home and totally healthy (ran 1/4 mile in a delusional episode) one week to never walking again the next week because he checked himself into the hospital for testing. When he forgot why he was there and rebelled, they gave him a normal sedative for a man his size - but he had never taken any medications. I don't fault the hospital at all. They couldn't have known the impact that sedative would have. On this topic though, he literally went from using the toilet to needing diapers in the nursing home a week later. Given that, there may be a lot I will have to learn about this particular topic as time goes by.

What did the sedative do to him? So sad isnt it. I dread my mom ever being bedridden and I hope she never is. We just ordered a ramp because the steps are getting difficult on most days and its an accident waiting to happen for sure.
You must know then, how it is to change diapers on a bedridden person, its got to be horrible for both them and us. I just cant imagine the mess it could be. You say you worked in a nursing home? Do you have your Mom with you thou?

The sedative knocked him out for 3 days. He lost so much from it. We had to teach him to swallow again. My brother tried to teach him to walk again but he just couldn't do it.

I worked in a nursing home many years ago. Mom lives here in my home with me and my husband now. I have a very structured day so that she is awake during the day (except for a few snoozes - she is 94 after all) and sleeps at night. If it gets bad enough that Mom is bedridden then we will probably find her a nursing home. As long as she is mobile, I'll keep her here with me. Her hope is that she will fall asleep and not wake up. I know that is not likely but if it did happen, that would be nice. More likely though, we'll be looking for a nursing home at some point in the future.