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Mom has started "wandering" at night. Her dementia is advancing rapidly. But she still is logical and not to the point where she knows nothing and cannot recognize us.

She woke me up 4x last night, found poop on the floor two times, found her another time and she crashed with the walker in the living room. Asked what she was doing there and she said she was looking for the bathroom. I am sleeping in the same room as she does and the master bedroom has a full bathroom in it. Found her again on her knees hanging on to the sink cause she couldn't get herself to her feet. Changed diapers a little while ago and gave her her pain meds. She is in severe pain and is under in-home hospice care right now. Even with the dementia, she can still carry on a lively conversation, but will forget what the topic was and what she talked about as soon as the conversation is over. She is not sick enough to into hospice full time yet, but I cannot be waking up every night 4x a night, every night wiping floors with poop on them. We have considered overnight caregivers cause I can't stay up all night watching if Mom decides to go wandering throughout the house. I already have CG 4x a week only for daytime for about 3-5 hrs, depending on how much I need to do. But now I think I need overnight CG so that I can sleep thru the entire night. This is now the second day with hardly any sleep the night before. I know there are many of you out there in my shoes and I would appreciate any advice right now.

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My same mantra......could she have UTI?
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Thank you jeannegibbs for your wise comments. Yes, I told her hospice nurse that the morphine only helps like extra strength Tylenol that doesn't rid her of the serious pain, and Mom needs something a lot stronger. So, I requested to her hospice doc through the hospice nurse to relay the message that the liquid morphine is doing her no good. So he prescribed the same type of morphine only in pill form. It's only 15mg, and the liquid morphine is 100mg per 5 ml and the pharmacist told sis that the original liquid one is stronger than the new one.
I don't understand this. Going to call hospice today and speak with the nurse about why the doc prescribed a lower dose. Maybe cause its in a pill form or something like that, I don't know. Also going to ask about sleep medication, maybe it will help her sleep through the night cause her pee and bowel movements are not streaming real pee, or a real bowel movement. Many times she just "thinks" that she has to go when she really doesn't have to. We've gone through so much large packages of toilet paper--the big kind that you get at Costco and Mom broke the toilet one time so we had to plunge it or call the plumber.
Tonight sis is staying over here and will get a taste of how worse Mom is. I'm glad, I need uninterruped sleep in my own bed and it will be great for sis to know what I go through every day and night and why I act the way I do somethimes--stessed out, short fuse, overreactive, don't want to talk, don't want to go out,etc... Again, thank you for letting me vent and ask another person in the trenches like myself who truly understands.
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First, I'm surprised that pain is a continuing issue while she is on hospice. I thought every effort would be made to keep her comfortable. What does hospice say about this issue?

Next, you are absolutely right that you cannot continue in the CG role without adequate sleep. That is a requirement! If eliminating Mother's pain helps her sleep through the night, good. If you need to bring night help in, that is a reasonable solution.

Or, perhaps using the hospice house is an option to take seriously. Have you discussed the criteria in detail with the hospice team?

My heart goes out to both of you. Warm hugs ... and get some sleep!
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