How can I tell if Grandma is in pain?
I've been dealing with Grandma making whimpering/moaning like noises a few times during the day and a lot at night (after 9pm) for at least two months now. I have asked her if anything is wrong and she'll say yes. I ask her what the problem is and she says she doesn't know. Recently, her knee swelled up and she had difficulty putting weight on it. She whimpered/moaned a lot, but admitted her knee hurt, mostly because she had trouble walking. Since she's on a blood thinner (Xarelto) the doctor couldn't prescribe Advil, so he put her on a steroid (Methylprednisolone). So the steroid is the kind where you take it for six days and taper off of it over those six days. The first day you take six pills, the second day is five pills, third day is four pills and on the sixth day there's one and that's it. So the first two days Grandma didn't make a peep. The third day (four pills) she started whimpering a little at night. It was on this day that the swelling in her knee was gone. On the fourth day (three pills) she was whimpering even more, but could walk without problems. I suspect by the time she's finished with the pills that she'll be back to full on whimpering again. Whatever was wrong with her knee (the doctor doesn't know - thinks it was a soft tissue injury) seems to have been resolved. Does the fact that she's kind of back to making whimpering noises suggest that she's in chronic pain? The less pills she takes, the more noises she makes. Doesn't that suggest pain or something? She's never been diagnosed with arthritis, but I suspect she has it. I don't know what that feels like. I don't understand how she cannot know whether she has pain, discomfort or something that is bothering her. Any suggestions? Obviously I'll be asking the doctor about this, but I sure would like to have opinions first. Maybe someone here has dealt with this before.
4 Answers
Popular Questions
Related Questions
- Wife has hot and cold flashes in her face and feels "ice water" in her veins in arms and legs. What could this be?
- Intractable pain, hospitalized sister in agony now three days. What should I be advocating, and how?
- My 86 year old mother was recently diagnosed with a hernia. She is in constant pain but they refuse to do surgery. What can we do?
- I need help with pain. Any advice?
Some of the topics include:
--Older adult and his caregiver
--Education for Patients and Families
--FAST FACTS and Pain Guidelines for Caregivers
--Organizations and Websites for Patients and Caregivers
--Pain Tool: Pain Diary
You can find more information on the internet regarding "elderly pain management" and "pain assessment scales (tools) for elderly". I'll look for some more information later when I have more time. Hope that this helps. :)
So, we want the elders to be comfortable but alert. Don’t medicate them until they are fall risks or unconscious. The real problem is the DEA has been given full freedom by the FEDS to outlaw anything that effectively controls pain. So that’s when your poor doctor has to give a steroid for a bumped knee. That is an inappropriate drug to control pain.
I think that you need to call the doctor and tell him how your Grandma's whimpering increased as the dosage decreased (number of pills decreased) and then ask if your Grandma can be given a long acting steroid.