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

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Help...She's Confused!



Last Friday will go down in history as the most trying day with Muddear. First things first...she was up for 24 hours straight!

No matter what Mike or I said, we could not convince Muddear that she was at home. She waited...and waited... and waited... and waited for me to take her home. As the night wore on and our patience wore thin, Muddear called me continuously into her room questioning her whereabouts. Not only was Muddear confused she was aggravated beyond belief. It was obvious Muddear thought we were lying - the truth only existed within her mind, therefore Muddear rejected anything we said that did not agree with that truth.

All night long, Muddear turned the hall and bathroom lights off and on. She opened and closed doors - her bedroom door, Mariah's bedroom door, the hall closet door even little Mike's. Numerous times she wheeled herself into my bedroom. About 2:00 a.m. I found Muddear in the hallway pushing her own wheelchair! Terrified that she would fall, I ran to Muddear's rescue only to realize that she at least had the wherewithall to put on the brakes. Thank goodness!


By 4:00 a.m. I was exhausted and nearing insanity when Muddear rolled into my bedroom again. "Mike? Mike? Are you in here? Nikki? Where are you?" Mike whispered to me, "shh... don't answer. Maybe she'll think we are sleep and go back into her room." Eventually Muddear stopped calling us and gratefully, I fell asleep. Shortly after, I heard the horrific sound...


Muddear was urinating on my bedroom floor! At 6:00 a.m. I was on my hands and knees cleaning the carpet. Help!

2 comments:

Jane Carlstrom said...

Oh Nikki, My heart goes out to you and to Muddear.

I don't know alot about all this, but in our experience with our grandmother, once she got going like this it just got worse.

On looking back, I think a big part of it was lack of sleep escalating the problem for both grandmother and my cousin.

We were not able to break the cycle - but what did break it was when cousin admitted grandma to the hospital - the night grandma almost swallowed her wedding rings thinking they were pills was the last straw and cousin just managed to get them out of grandma's mouth before they went down her throat.

Anyway, grandma got placed on an Alzheimers unit for a couple of weeks and the improvement was immense. They provided behavioural therapy and got her back to sleeping at night and regaining bladder control and not calling every two hours for help to the bathroom. I think we let grandma get way beyond where Muddear is now.

anyway, the only thing I can think of is to maybe have her do a short term stay either in respite or an Alzheimer's unit if possible to break the cycle. And maybe that will get her off the belief of being in the wrong place and let her come back to your home and feel it is indeed her home again.

It is so very challenging. Wishing you the best.

Hugs, Jane

njm said...

Hey Jane,

Thanks for the encouragement. We do have a respite stay coming up - for my birthday. Yayyyy!!! Maybe that will help.

I also contacted the doctor. She will undergo a series of test to see if there is something phyical or simply the Dementia. Either way, it will require more medication.

We shall see.