She is 63 yrs old on oxygen and pretty much self sufficient. She has been doing this for years and so far has not seriously hurt herself. Shes on a fentanyl patch which i think has a lot to do with it. When she first puts the patch on she will be up for the next 24-36 hours minimum, then the 2nd night she starts getting up for water or the bathroom or to eat and between getting out of bed and doing whatever she intended she will fall asleep. If I dont hear her get up usually i hear her hitting the floor and shaking the house. Alarms dont work (the kind you attach to nightgown to bed) because she wakes up to do something so she just unplugs them. I cant stay up 24/7 listening for her and she never sleeps on any schedule, never has. I really dont know what to do short of say a posey vest, and im sure she wont let me anyways, not to mention the fire dangers and such. I was wondering if maybe someone has heard of an alarm that either wears like a watch of she holds in her hand that once she gets up it will go off every 30 seconds or something unless she keeps resetting it. That way if she gets up if she falls asleep standing and doesnt reset it, it will go off and wake her? I used to be a CNA yrs ago as well as an EMT and honestly I dont want to have to use the latter skills on her if possible, so i need to figure out something before she does break something.
Thank You all in advance, and I hope you are all having a blessed day!
Craig
U have been such a strong n loving daughter...n i dont know if we ever said "thanku" to u for allowing Meno to post on the thread after all the misunderstanding with typos n all. We were saddened to think of the thread without his insight.....now.....we r feeling devastated at the possibility that he will be silenced...I cannot believe this is happeneing.. Please kno how we are all praying for u, Ruth, n for our beloved Meno. I lay down tonite with a very heavy heart, n pray tomorrow will bring a miracle....God Bless u, Ruth.....Angels surround Meno in a tight circle.....n in the center of that circle ...the word.."Me".....
Thanks glad to hear that, usually people dont understand or get my humor, but considering your screen name i guess its no surprise that you get it. lol.. I wish I wanted a tens unit for muscle spasm, I have something more exotic and just now making headway after the CDC devastating and handled wrong conclusion on "morgellons" disease.. ALthough i am not onboard with most the conspiracy people out there, I am on board with science and the fact that the affects of environmental toxins and dental procedure toxins, eating habits of this generation, and overall poor nutrition has developed a new and hard to understand disease. It is real and very hard to find a doctor to treat, although more and more are starting too, disease has a close correlation with Lymes which in itself is still denied by some Docs. lol I guess dealing with this the past 4 years has made me a bit cynical to the medical field and especially pharmaceutical companies or Big-oharma as i guess the charlatons are called now, treating symptoms instead of the causes...lol..sorry..See i did choose a fitting screenname. =) I looked up those supplements you mentioned, some good beneifits listed, Some day hopefully soon the FDA will lift its "ban" on holistic medicines and start making headway into solving more health concerns...somewhere a happy medium exists between traditional and holistic medicine...just wish the day comes soon where healthcare is driven by love instead of greed
I just read an article where Pain Management doctors are being forced to stop writing pain scripts so now they are burning nerves off the spine and since they are afraid of prescribing opiates they now have come up with a drug to get all the people they addicted off the narcotics they addicted them to in the 1st place but in the next paragraph it reads the new drug is more addictive than the old drugs. It all seems crazy to me.
Hey thanks for the suggestion, Yeah in the past she has had a tens unit, and if I remember correctly she really liked it. I will ask her about it and see if she wants to talk to her doc about getting one again. besides I have wanted to get one anyways for awhile now to see if it might not help me with my own health problems that I guess according to the CDC is just "delusional".lol but thats a whole other story. =-)
Last year she was fitted with a portable TENS unit - we call it the 'bug zapper' - but basically it has 4 pads that stick on the skin (he has degenerative disk problems in lower spine) and these pads have wires that go to the small TENS unit and you can choose which 'program' you want your zaps/pulses to be on. It tricks the body and messes with the pain signals and she gets a lot of pain relief with this and it requires NO medication.
She will wear it for a few hours and then may not need it for a day or two - sometimes a week. It was the BEST thing they ever did for her pain. I don't think there is a limit on the amount of time you wear it - you can turn the signals up or down. Medicare paid for hers, but sadly, Medicare no longer covers the cost. But they are not horribly expensive and you can buy replacement pads and wires on Amazon.com fairly cheaply.
Just thought I would mention this device if you have never tried it. Her pain management doctor suggested it. It sure cuts down on spinal injections. It may not eliminate them completely - but she doesn't complain of pain when she wears it. It is about the size of a couple of decks of cards stacked on top of each other. I clips on your clothes and can be concealed if you want to wear it out and about. The website shows the unit she has - but there are a lot of them out there. This one is fairly substantial - not cheaply made and can hold up to a accidental drop :0)
Your mom is certainly fortunate to have you for care and protection. My heart gbreaks when I see our aged people siting at the doors waiting for someone (anyone) to visit them. I asked once if they were made to do that and ws told no-they do it all day every day waiting , waiting,waiting, And the hardest is when someone who can hardly see or is fogged in thinks you are their daughter for a moment and those eyes light up and then when reality hits them they go dim again! God Bless-hope you will stay in touch-menos daughter
there are good nursing homes out there, I have worked in a couple of them, but our of the four I have ever worked at only one of them is somewhere i would be willing to let my mom live in. it was a private facility with only appx 50 beds, and each CNA would only have 5 sometimes 6 residents each to care for. which was nice because we were able to do the things these people deserve, basic things like make up, nice hair styles, and the best of all no Sweat clothes all the time...ugh The owner was blind and always there and he cared about the folks living there, it was nice, he also took care of us CNA's and the crew was all top of the line AIds. it was an gero/psyche facility and probably one of the more rewarding places ive ever worked. Ive also seen some real dumps, trained in one actually, sad sad sad is all i can say. unfortunately most of these places are only as good as the worst aid and used to be almost anyone could be one, now adays its a little stricter and slowly the help is getting better. Ive seen aids abuse residence and yeah i reported them, was better than breaking their hands too i guess. ANyways thanks for the suggestions and for anyone else who replied also, I do sincerily thank you, pretty cool site here, too bad i didnt know about it back when i was an aid in the nursing homes ..=-)
I definitely will ask the Pain specialist about that today. I am actually quite glad she is finally getting to see him because to be honest her regualr Doctor imo hasnt a clue. I remember when my mother was living at my Aunts house and had gotten sick, I would call and ask my aunt how my moms doing and she would say alright, but shes just really tired. well after a couple of days I went over there to see how she was and when I would talk to her, she would mumble incoherently Well at that point against my moms lethargic protests I loaded her into the can off to the Docs. This was the first time I had gone with her to the Doc since she moved from mexico, up to that point my Aunt was going with her or she would go alone. Well when she got called back and the aid came in to take her vitals the aid started taking her blood pressure and kept redoing it and looking perplexed, I asked her if she needed help or anything (its hard not to say anything when you too know what or how something should be done, they hate me there now..lol) and the aid tells me I cant hear anything for her blood pressure, she then tries again and this time she goes, well i think I got it.,..Of course I was like "you think?" at that point i took the cuff and her stethescope (yes wiped with alcohol first :-) ) and took my moms pressure, I understood why the girl was having trouble, her blood pressure was 58 over 40 scary, and her pulsox reading was 74, i couldnt believe it. So the Doc comes in right then and she tells him the numbers and he gets her on oxygen right away, well to keep this shorter, she slowly starts to become more coherent and tells me that every time she comes to her appts the doc puts her on oxygen. So I ask the doctor about it and he says well she needs to bring her oxygen in with her for her appointments..I asked him what Oxygen, and he looks thru her charts again and say Oh I thought I prescribed that to her awhile ago...ugh so yeah im happy she will be having this specialist over see her meds now...small town i live in, not many choices... Once i saw the same Doc in what i thought might be an emergency situation but wasnt sure of, i had severe chest pain, but thought it might be a muscle in my chest but maybe me heart, welll he hooked me up to the ekg, and after a minute tells the aid, call EMS hes having a myocardial infarct (actually he said MRI) he then says actually tell them to send a ALS (advanced life support) crew..he then looks at me and says dont worry, youre going to be ok.. i was like huh..then i got some nitro and some morphine, and was in the ambulance all of 2 minutes when the Medic looked at the ekg the doc gave him and says, you arent having a heart attack..I told the medic that i didnt think so because everytime the driver turns or hit the brakes it hurts worse./.. so unfortunately i got the Doc who probably just squeaked thru all his exams...they still call them guys doctor though..lol
Thanks for your advice and the story about your father, I do appreciate it..and once again my post lives up to my screenname, sorry about that. =-)
it's way to their brains , or burn off nerves only to have them grow back and the procedure is repeated? Dad was injured in the service and had part of his spinal cord chipped and then a few years after discharge he had ruptures-then surgery, then more surgery and a rod, then a cage, then 3 years ago the patch which nearly killed him now he is addicted to Morphine via pain pump and he has no pain and out of the clear blue sky his new pain management doctor wants to burn nerves again. I said he is in no pain so when you burn his nerves will you get him off the Morphine I asked? No-he will need that for the rest of his life. Well why burn off nerves that are going to grow back anyway if he isn't in any pain? I said no. The doctor said okay and that was that. His Psychologist and Psychiatrist said this: Never-under any circumstances let your father be subjected to any more injections of any kind. Your father is dying! Let him die painless. Steiroid Injections cause Major Depression in many persons especially the older ones. I thought back to my dad crying for no reason days and weeks after spinal injections. I was balled out by his primary care physician as well. He said he never got a report that you okay'd any procedures on your father! Read this order:. I read it. It was an order for the Pain Doctor to limit all procedures in this 63 year old male to Narcotic' s only
as a remedy to keep this patient as free of pain as possible as he is not expected to recover. Note: Suggest standard dose meter pump. I never read the doctors order I just handed it to the pain management doctor. How stupid of me. I think back to my dads tears and how he screamed while the doctor was inserting large needles in his spine and dad was calling me momma! Help me Momma! Why momma?
I'd like to stick some of that in that doctors back. People. If your 87 year old loved one is dying or 63 or 23-let them die without pain! Please do not subject them to invasive procedures that cause depression or further stress. These nerve burnings and injections are to get working class people back on their feet but I have read horror stories about things going wrong. Who gives a hoot if your mom or dad is an addict at their age? Sorry about the spelling-I am in a hurry to take Meno for a walk before it gets too hot.
Vivian, sounds like you can partially relate to the fentanyl patch, i know she is on the lowest dosage of them now which off hand i believe is either 25 or .25 Id like her to get off them altogether. I sometimes wonder how much of the pain is from the opiates tricking the brain and how much is from her actual problems. I personally have experienced addiction to lortabs, and had a running script for them for a broken neck (not that bad. lol really) i was always in pain, that is until after 18 months on the pills i decided to stop taking them, it took about 2 weeks to get over them and after that, no more pain. sore once in a blue moon now thats it. I just wish Docs would explain in detail to patients how addictive those patches are, basically like heroin, only stronger and every bit addivtive.
Thanks to all of you again, nice to see people are still out there that have time to help even a stranger.
Craig aka ramblingman