We’ve been taking care of my mom who has dementia for over six years now. Within the past year it’s gotten really bad. She can go three days with no sleep calling for help and crying and counting and talking all night and all day long. I feel like our house is a house of horrors, and the saddest thing is she just can’t stop. Has anyone else experienced this,
Truly, what anyone else has experienced isn't truly relevant to yours and your sister's situation, which is the typical one of having taken on care that has entered hopeless and endless, and which progresses yearly to requiring more and more of you until it is where it is now.
Where is it now? Easy answer.
Right now the care you are attempting is no long helping your loved one and is no longer sustainable for you two sisters. It is care in which a STAFF and several SHIFTS of 24/7 care is required.
l am so sorry. I know you will have been talking together. There's no easy answer here. The answer requires mourning and recognizing that often the end of life doesn't have any good answers. Of course that can be true of ANY stage of life. The trick is to recognize it.
Do stick around and read together here. I think you will come to a solid guilt-free realization that not everything can be fixed. Some things can only to mourned.
Once you get her agitation under control it may be time for you to consider MC for her. Many here have been in your shoes and have good guidance to give you.
She needs medication, and it often takes a lot of adjusting to get the right mix. These symptoms might never stop, but they may get better with meds. Without meds, forget it! In a memory care facility with 24/7 trained professionals, they have a lot of experience and know how to deal with it, plus they aren’t exhausted like home caregivers. It really is like living in a house of horrors, and you deserve relief! There are some things that aren’t best handled at home, and these symptoms are twelve hundred of them.
Good luck with a difficult problem.
Best of luck to you.
The only thing that helped my dad's dementia related insomnia was finding the proper medication so he could sleep. Plus an as needed anti-anxiety.
We learned his condition would not get better and that meds were a necessary part of this stage in his life. He continued to decline, which is sadly what happens with dementia.
Please consider placing Mom in memory care . This is no longer sustainable at home .
I’ve worked on memory care units . Certain patients get their days and nights mixed up and we let them . Perhaps your Mom will be like that . Is she partly upset because you are all trying to get her to go to bed ?
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