What's Been Working, Part Two

Alzheimer's Is a Long Road With Twists and Turns

What was working HERE two months ago at the end of March, isn't working now. More help is needed and we have it except for times I have to be gone and Kenny isn't available. We have been on board with Hospice now for one week. As Laurie, west coast caregiver whom I have also interviewed said in a March comment, you have to

ADAPT!

Laurie's husband is at home rather than in a nursing home--I keep learning from her even since our interview in the fall of 2012 HERE.


Adapting to NO showers. Before Hospice when I couldn't get hubby in the shower and volunteer Kenny was out of town, I used washcloths and Simply Right Adult Washcloths to clean my husband. These disposable washcloths have Vitamin E, Aloe and Chamomile to aid skin wellness (maybe prevent bed sores). I settled on Simply Right Underwear for Men for only $.41 per use as I recorded in a comment HERE. Brenda recommended those Simply Right Underpads for under the sheets and also an ear thermometer for checking UTI infections.  (All Simply Right products are at Sam's.)  I purchased an Instant Ear Digital Thermometer from Walgreens where I also got the UTI strips I wrote about HERE. With the thermometer two points above normal and you have a UTI.

Sam's and Walgreens need to hire

me to do a commercial for them. 

From now on Hospice will be providing these materials. With a bed bath five days a week from Hospice and that cranberry juice, perhaps hubby will not get UTIs easily.

Avoiding falls. Hospice provided a walking belt called a Universal Gait Belt. This was possibly what the lady at the restaurant thought I should use recently. You wrap the belt around your loved one and tighten with two fingers in it so you allow for adequate circulation when you secure him/her. Then you don't grab an arm and pull him/her by the midsection. As yet, I haven't had an occasion to use this belt.

New uses for equipment. Last summer when hubby was released from the hospital, he was sent home with a wheel chair and a walker. His walking improved and he didn't always need those. I had just been using the wheel chair and grab bars in the master bathroom. Now I put the half-opened walker in the master bath and I avoid a fall in there like the one when the firemen had to rescue him.

Walker and grab bar help hubby get to toilet. 

Cognitive changes. He asks about the second story and if this is his home often. No, Sweetheart we do not have a second story, and yes,  this is our home. I assure him we are home, but tell him he doesn't walk well and needs someone with him so he doesn't fall. When I took him driving on Sunday he had strange perceptions about the neighborhood. I just listened, but did not argue. He wanted to know the name of someone. I kept throwing out names I made up and finally he decided on a fictitious name he thought was someone from his past. Hubby wants explanations for how the wheel chair works and even how the bottled water works. I am an English teacher--not a scientist--so I come up with something easy to say. He can't accept long sentences anyway. He will often say you are not making sense. Kenny surprised us at our front door Saturday afternoon. He was back in town. An hour later hubby didn't remember that Kenny had been here.

Pills in applesauce.  I crush his pills and put them in applesauce and hand feed him so he gets his pills. I learned to not put cinnamon in it as he vomited that up. I tell him he has to have all the applesauce because the pills are there. The applesauce I use is naturally sweetened and it works sans cinnamon.  

Hospice doesn't do weekends and hubby is noticing changes and he rebelled and wanted to stay in bed in his pee on Saturday.  I stayed calm. In the early afternoon he was shivering and I could  finally convince him we needed to change his clothes. It had been so pleasant W, TH, and F to have a home health aide change his clothes and the wet bed. On weekends I do it all. By Sunday night May 18th I was a wreck and Monday morning was hard too before Hospice came.  

Earlier in the week our yard/maintenance man Pharis and his wife got our king-sized bed out of the bedroom and brought in my new twin bed that would be by his hospital bed.  The hospital bed was finally delivered May 20th. While waiting for that bed to be delivered, hubby has been sleeping in my new twin bed.  I have been sleeping on the family room couch and my back hurt from that couch and from helping hubby get around. I do not sleep well as I keep checking on him.  Sunday morning I left him alone in my twin bed soaked with pee because he was again grumpy. Don't worry--I am using those Simply Right Underpads when he sleeps on my  new bed. 

About an hour later he didn't remember being grumpy so we could start the day over.  I came back and said, “Good morning, sweetheart! Today is the day we go to church." Since he walks a little better I was able to get his wet disposable underwear off and bring him in the wheel chair to the master bathroom where he sat on the commode. I somewhat cleaned him and dressed him for our 2 pm church service and got him out by his Archie Bunker spot in the family room sitting in his wheel chair. A sign in front of him reads: 

Walk with someone by your side! 

That’s what we all have to do. Have someone by our side. Now with the new hospital bed and my twin bed, I can get off the couch and sleep by my husband's side tonight in a comfortable bed and he will not pee in my bed.

Ziggy likes the Geri Chair Recliner

Ziggy has claimed the Geri Chair recliner, but I can't get hubby in it yet.

The bed and the recliner are loaned to us by Hospice and clients have this furniture until no longer needed. Ziggy will have to adapt going between the hospital bed and my twin bed tonight. But you can teach him new tricks.

Thanks ever so much for your 

prayers and interest, folks. 

Hospital bed at left and my twin at right
are covered by a bedspread.