My wife, who has Alzheimer's dementia (middle stage), complained of a headache every day for at least two weeks, and I gave her a 500 mg Tylenol tablet once or twice a day. After that, she did not mention having a headache for about a week. Then our son came for a visit. The first thing he asked her was "do you still have a headache," and she said yes. He got upset with me for not taking her to our doctor, and he ordered her 50 tablets of 220 mg Naproxen sodium.
Is it possible that his question triggered her memory, and she really did not have a headache? Has anyone else had this kind of experience?
I'll add at mid stage and beyond if we were not sure if Mom had pain we gave OTC pain pills. At that point we were not concerned about liver or kidney damage.
We erred on the side of pain relief.
Your son asked "Do you still have a headache?" Answer was Yes.
What is your son had asked "Has your headache stopped?" Would the answer also be Yes?
Asking more 'open' questions may work better.. but also depends on someone being able to verbally describe how they are.
Eg How are you?
If expression or posture makes you suspect something is off, keep investigating.
Ask "Do you have pain?" Look for clues.
Try adding hand gestures also.
Eg Does this hurt? (Point to head)
Does this hurt (point to leg).
I've seen nurses do that. One ran through questions on pain, nausea etc & the patient said yes to absolutely everything & every body part pointed at. In the end, the patient said "I feel bad. I just feel bad".
You know your Wife best. I bet you know her facial expressions, tone of voice & posture & know how she is whether she uses words or not.
at a certain point, she was unable to say, “I have a headache.”
My husband is in memory care, and a relative is always so concerned that someone may hurt him. She keeps asking him if someone has hurt him, and so far he says no. No one there would intentionally hurt him! Old people get bruises, but she is ever willing to attribute them to someone besides him. She doesn't realize that he doesn't understand the word "hurt!" Someday he may say that someone there DID hurt him, not knowing what he's saying. Relative is not there often enough to know that he doesn't know whereof he speaks.
I can point to an aide and ask if that's "Susan," and he'll say yes. She's "Marty." I can ask him if he ate lunch today, and he'll say yes. Lunch hasn't been served yet.
Basic procedure is not to believe anything a dementia patient says. Their brains are broken.
Meanwhile, tell your son to butt out. You're the primary caregiver.
If your wife is truly hurting you'll be able to tell more by her facial expressions than what she says or doesn't say.
Plus you giving her only 500 mg. of Tylenol once or twice a day wouldn't really have helped much anyway if she truly had a bad headache.
You are the one caring for your wife and YOU have to trust your instincts with her care. Your son is not there every day, so he really doesn't get much of a say in my opinion. That is of course until he is there caring for his mom 24/7.