Chronic UTI and dementia.

my mom takes two 'cranberry concentrate' pills daily. they are OTC from any pharmacy. i think the brand AZO has one. this was recommended by the 'par excellence' owner/care director of the board & care home she is wait listed for. she recommends this preventative to UTI prone residents; barring any contraindications and with doctors approval of course.

my mom also has poor hygiene that she just WILL NOT change... i.e. wiping back to front, not wanting to change underwear. not to mention being a lifelong refuser to hand wash after toileting. double arrrrgggg.

since giving her the cranberry pills and being dedicated to daily underwear changes, she has been UTI free for a long time.

lastly, i had her physician provide her with a standing order for urinalysis testing at her hospital (kaiser permanente here in northern california), and the lab let me take half a dozen urine sample jars to have on hand... (NOT that getting a sample from my mom is a picnic; more like a crazy-ass scene from a '70s woody allen movie... but i digress :)

not sure what "pills" @Reverseroles what speaking to above. just my two cents.

~doting daughter, always learning

p.s. the cranberry pills are chewable and taste good. as my mom is a pill refuser in any event, i crush them with her other meds and she gets them in her morning yogurt or cherry ice cream treat after dinner. :)

Reverseroles,
I don't know about kjhinshaw's mother, but a shower every single day would be too hard on my 93 year old Mom's skin, no matter what kind of soap was use. She would be out of her mind with itching from drying skin. Body lotion would not take care of it. That said, every day "bottom" washing would be great. But, my mom lives on her own, and won't allow her twice a week help to give her any kind of bath, and my sister and I live across the country. She won't shower while the help is anywhere in the house either. Very stubborn woman, my mom.

Hi susie379, my Mom is VERY stubborn too... I understand what you are dealing with. I have had trouble getting my Mom to take her medication! Taking a shower is really not an issue so much but I do not know that she is very careful about getting clean. I know she would NOT allow anyone else to bathe her, but me and I will. take care, and hang in there...

As for the bathing, that schedule is set up by the Hospice. They do clean her private areas constantly with some special type of cleaner they have. If I were able I'd try to shower her myself, but I wouldn't be able to do it without both of us being down. :-) She's wheel chair bound and I can't lift her.

The pills my mom is on is amoxicillin but they have another one you can take nightly but I do not have the name unfortunately. My Moms 91 and wheelchair bound also. I am having extreme pain in one arm because of lifting her for 2 years on and off the toilet. She is bathed head to toe every morning and quick washed at night before bed. I have a hoyer lift so I can put her in her recliner , and her wheelchair to come out and eat with us, and then into bed. I havent mastered how to get off her diaper and hoyer her onto the toilet but if anyone knows how please tell me. I use creamy johnsons baby wash on mom, her skin never broke down, oh, I sure hope it never does. I sit her on a hipsaver pad in her chairs that I bought, they are suppose to prevent skin breakdowns. Please ask yout urologist about the nightly pill, my Moms friend is on it, at assisted living and I have yet to find out the name. She was getting UTI's constantly and this stopped them. Good Luck to all you caregivers, hang in there :o)

@ Reverseroles - I was considering a hoyer lift but looked it up on YouTube and it seemed to require two people. You are going the way of the 'lifters', first my arm, then my back, then my neck and now my legs..."Good luck" isn't going to help, those of us doing this on our own need another body to help do the lifting before we end up in the hoyer lift! I admit to not changing diapers as often as I once did because he is dead weight now and cannot turn to the side anymore and I live in constant pain.

Here I am awake @ 4:00 am not being able to sleep. So I get online and read this article about UTI's and confusion. We drive 3 hours to relieve my mother in law's live in care giver on some weekends. We've experienced the mood changes when she has UTI's as I have explained previously to her caregivers. The telltale sign for her of a UTI is urine frequency and the odor is putrid. So as I sit here enjoying my "quiet" time as she is sleeping, she decides to get up, I guess she is afraid of missing something. She has had 4 UTI's in the past 18 months. They are e coli of origin most likely from not cleaning herself properly and after a bowel movement and wiping from back to front. Just now I reminded her not to wipe that way, she can get an infection. Of course with the dementia she says she has been wiping that way all her life and never had infections! Arggggggggggh! I have asked the caregiver to give her cranberry juice 2- 3 times a day to help prevent the UTI's and extra cost of depends. It becomes quite obvious that goes in one ear and out the other when the cranberry juice I have provided is not used up when we return. The problem with that is we are 3 hours away and hard to oversee my mother in laws care. When others don't follow instructions and do what they want, or recognize change in status, ultimately, it hurts my mother in law. : (

Bellas, you don't need 2 people to use a hoyer lift. I use it alone every day many times. Fortunately we have laminate and hardwood floors because I could see them being tough on a carpet. If you want me to show you how just give me your email and I can show you, its very easy and I should have gotten one a long time ago. I just cant hoyer her onto the toilet because she has a diaper on and I cant figure out how to change her but I can hoyer her to the bed . The pharmacy called me yesterday and they have my new U sling in, it suppose to have an open rear end area so it will work, time will tell. lol !
RR

Use glycerin (soap.) It's great. One bar will last a month. It's 1.69 a bar. I love it. It does not burn at all. I have very thin skin and I have since I was 49.