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She is 84 years old and in at least middle stage of alzheimers. She weighs about 110 pounds but she can still pack a punch! And she does! I understand that part of her knows the humiliation of us having to change her, and she cusses us and tries to fight us, but she has to be changed and she is not goin to do it! The good part is that she still eats real good and will eat all day if you put food in front of her. I also understand that her medicines may be messing up her stomach that causes diaherra and such. But how do we keep her clean? She lives at home with my brother who is her caregiver and he takes good care of her but it takes two of us to change her. I work and have to leave work to go clean her up during day. We do have a nurse who comes 3 times a week to give baths and more personal hygeine care. My question is, besides the depends, which do not hold anything, is there something else on market that we can get to keep her drier and cleaner? She does seem to get UTI's alot and know it is because of the wetness and messes but she won't let us change her! What can we do? We are not putting her in nursing home because she had told us years ago not to ever put her in one!! She was a RN till she retired at age of 72! She knew what went on in them and never wanted to be in one!! Other than the incontinent problem, she is pretty easy to get along with. We do have locks on all cabinets and doors and she does not wander. We want to keep her in her home and happy as long as possible. She is on Aricept and Namenda...........can anyone tell me if they think the combination of the two helps? It has been 1 year now for both and we think it is a waste of money.............Also, her neurologist put her on some sleeping pills to help her sleep all nite and they don't seem to work either. Any ideas for helping her sleep during the night?? Any suggestions are welcome!

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My mom went through an incontinent phase during an illness and she is small like your mom. She hated Depends and they did not work well at all. So I told her to use Huggies XL size for girls. My son was incontinent for a long time because of his mild hypotonia and he could wear the boys XL size into his teens when he finally become dry all night. The Huggies feel very soft, very comfortable and are not bulky at all and really hold the moisture. Since your mom is small, they would fit fine! They are easy to change too.

Both my mom and dad did not want to accept any help for toileting etc. from us their daughters but would accept it just fine from someone else. That might be what the problem is.
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One thing I have used in the nursing home with alz patients, and it sounds to simple but it really works on some. Put the back of a chair in front of her and tell her to hold onto it. Even if she stands fine, just set the chair up where you change her and take her to it and tell her to hold on to the back of the chair. Somthing about them only focusing on one thing at a time. It works best when you are using diapers but you can do it with pull ups as well. Just have her hold on,clean her then have her sit down while you put them back on, have her stand up again to pull them up. If she gets combative, this really helps. She may not do it every time, but if she will even do it part of the time it will help.
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