I find it odd that my mother in law always complained about her knee and every time she had to stand up or walk she would carry on about the pain. Now that she has dementia it never comes up. Just curious if you lose the pain or she was faking it.
My mother started complaining of knee pain years before she was diagnoised with Alzheimers. A Dr. at a research center we took her to for awhile told me that they now feel that chronic knee pain and an unusual gait are early signs of her disease. My mom's pain magically went away for a few years but is back now and totally confuses her. Be thankful that it is not something you have to deal with right now but don''t be surprised if your mother-in-laws knee pain comes back in the future.
fedup15, why do you think Beazer was responding specifically to you? The OP itself contains a reference to "faking it" about pain.
It would probably help if we all used the name of the person we were responding to, it it isn't the OP. That's what I did in this post, for example. But getting everyone to agree to that and to remember it is probably more than we can hope for.
I, too, hate hearing people accused of "faking it", but I didn't hear you say that, fedup15.
Karen if my comment was hurtful it wasn't intended to be - I actually asked Mum's doctor last night (after he nearly crashed into me I figured he owed me!!!) He said the pain doesn't go away - it can't unless she has had treatment that would have dealt with the issue. What he did say was that you should be looking for weakness when she stands especially if there is a tilt in the body as that is a big indicator of pain that the brain's preceptors are not picking up. He also said that some people with dementia (depending on the type of dementia) would be unable to articulate the pain - he also said that some people with dementia (like my Mum) feel pain that does not exist whilst having pain elsewhere that they don't recognise.
I asked how that worked and he said we don't know for sure, we are just aware that it is so. Because I always try to get every last ounce out of these docs I said how can you treat that then? He said we can't all we can do is remove all the treatment we are not sure about and do more tests until we are sure. With things like arthritis and all things similar we can find out through X-rays etc and for the internals we use CT scans and ultrasounds and those together with blood investigations usually give us the bigger picture but it is not 100% ..if only it were that simple. He added sometimes we have to monitor very closely sometimes we can do that off site using heart monitors that people can wear - as with all dementia it is never the same for any two people - that is why it is such a frustrating disease
jeannegibbs - hers and another post were under mine. And appeared around the same time. Both addressed some of what I had posted. I always try to remember to use names in responses too. That way there is no mistaking who the post was intended for. That is why.
Ruth Anne, you just reminded me that my father does not consider himself "old" at 89 but he has no trouble reminding me that I am old at 60. Thought that was funny - up at a point.
Yes, it is really weird. My mom has Alzheimers for at lease 7 and a half years now and is in a nursing home. Before the Alzheimers, she had such reflux symptoms that she couldn't eat after 3:00 PM in the afternoon.......... She also had a lot of bouts of diverticulitis and landed in the hospital many times. Since the Alzheimers she never complains of any digestive problems, can eat anything and never gets bothered by her diverticulitis. I couldn't believe it when this began to happen, but I was glad because no worries about her diet. So am able to feed her mostly everything, but as a precaution, just in case, I do not give her nuts or seeds for the diverticulitis, but at least the nursing staff can give her a little sandwich at night time if she gets a little hungry. So now that I read this answer, it answers my dilemma of why all of these sicknesses just disappeared. Thank you.
"She was faking it, attention seeking. I have never known dementia to take away pain." Really? And this is a comment from someone with a photo indicating they are a nurse. This is callous and unbelievable. I pray that I never have anyone like this caring for me if I need it when I get older. True: We cannot judge someone else's pain, nor can we walk in their shoes. Have compassion, please. No one is faking pain for attention. Unbelievable comment.
Now that you mention it, my mother complained less and less as her dementia became worse. She believed in "MIND OVER MATTER" most of my life and was sick very few times, but even when she was we had to be a detective and wring it out of her most times. She did have sciatica pain and yet she rarely complained so when she did you knew it was BAD. She had surgery about 18 months ago and because she did not remember that she had surgery she was climbing out of bed and basically acting like a child, a naughty one, so there must have been no pain.
It would probably help if we all used the name of the person we were responding to, it it isn't the OP. That's what I did in this post, for example. But getting everyone to agree to that and to remember it is probably more than we can hope for.
I, too, hate hearing people accused of "faking it", but I didn't hear you say that, fedup15.
I asked how that worked and he said we don't know for sure, we are just aware that it is so. Because I always try to get every last ounce out of these docs I said how can you treat that then? He said we can't all we can do is remove all the treatment we are not sure about and do more tests until we are sure. With things like arthritis and all things similar we can find out through X-rays etc and for the internals we use CT scans and ultrasounds and those together with blood investigations usually give us the bigger picture but it is not 100% ..if only it were that simple.
He added sometimes we have to monitor very closely sometimes we can do that off site using heart monitors that people can wear - as with all dementia it is never the same for any two people - that is why it is such a frustrating disease
I hope that helps xxx
Really? And this is a comment from someone with a photo indicating they are a nurse. This is callous and unbelievable. I pray that I never have anyone like this caring for me if I need it when I get older. True: We cannot judge someone else's pain, nor can we walk in their shoes. Have compassion, please. No one is faking pain for attention. Unbelievable comment.