Tips For Caregiver's

People with Alzheimer's disease frequently become more disoriented after dark or when waking. Leaving a night-light on in the bedroom may be helpful.

~WebMd

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Back To The Hosptial

Muddear and I have been bumbling around for the past hour and a half doing a little of everything and a bunch of nothing. We have finished the morning breakfast and medication routine, albeit a little late.

I will never understand how Muddear makes a production out of taking her breathing treatment. On average, a breathing treatment should take 12 minutes. This morning, Muddear began her breathing treatment at 10:24 a.m. and did not finish until 11:05 a.m. That's 41 minutes!

Of course you are probably wondering, "how is that possible?" I can only describe...

What is supposed to happen is: Muddear should hold the mouthpiece in her mouth and breath deeply to inhale the medication into her lungs. End of story.

Instead, what actually happens is (I'll share this morning's experience.): Muddear started taking the treatment while sitting in her wheelchair. She decided she was cold and got in the bed, thus knocking over the nebulizer (machine that facilitates the treatment). Her nose started running and she couldn't find the Kleenex that were sitting right next to the bed. She finds the Kleenex, blows her nose, and then cannot locate the oxygen cannula she removed from her nose to blow it. Okay we are all settled again. I come back to check, Muddear has now gotten out of the bed and back into her wheelchair. She needs to blow her nose and cannot find the toilet tissue. Now repeat the entire nose blowing action above. This goes on several more times which equals...41 minutes.

Well, now it's time for wash-up and dressing. There has been no change in Walter's condition and we are headed back to St. Elizabeth Medical Center.

I'll keep you posted.

2 comments:

Jane Carlstrom said...

Oh yes. This really gives me some flashbacks to my own grandmother. Wonder if this type of activity is where the term doddering comes from? When looked at with the activity it becomes a nice descriptive term, not a derogatory one. My own grandma was a champ at doddering; and trying to get her to move faster or focus on the job at hand only created more delay. Hugs, Jane

njm said...

Doddering! The very word brought a smile to my face. How appropro!