Losing my mind. We cannot steam clean the carpet enough, it’s simply impossible to keep clean. Doc has his own “suite” with his own bathroom, bedroom and full bath. What he does behind closed doors is beyond me. Yesterday I went to his room to hang up his clothes - by the way, how does a man who stays home every day all day go through more laundry than my two teenagers combined?? Anyway, I step on wet carpet on the side of his bed, and in total disgust, I walk to the other side to remove the bedding, where I step into yet another huge wet spot on the carpet, noticing the yellow staining on the sheet, even down the side of the bed. Unreal. I wanted to throw up. I want to scream just talking about it now! What in God’s name do others do in this situation? How can you stand to live smelling and seeing this every single damned day? As I continued to hang up his million pieces of clothing up in angry tears, all I wondered was if they do this in a nursing home? Do they clean the carpet and bedding immediately with oxy clean and every other measure to combat the smell, stain and germs? Do they wash clothes nonstop and hang them up perfectly? I am truly losing my mind in this never ending battle, and I need to know how others who live with the same issue deal with it. He does not have any infection, does not eat asparagus and yes, we get him depends. From his couch, to the bathroom floor, to the carpet - and he wears his house slippers all over the house - God help me, it makes me so sick that this is my home and this is my father in law. He does not know he has dementia (never been spoken of) and denies incontinence, though that has been brought up at the dr. Little things like when he goes to get coffee and touches the sugar and drawer for a spoon and the coffee pot handle - don’t want him to touch anything. Had to put an “out of order” sign on the half bathroom to prevent him from using that because I’m cleaning endlessly - I’m losing it. Just losing it! Any ideas on how to deal with it until we get him in a home?
Pull up the carpet in your FIL’s room and put down linoleum. Not tile - tile can be porus and absorb urine that both stains and holds onto odor - not to mention grout. Keeping grout clean in typical circumstances is hard enough.
I know linoleum hasn’t been a fashion statement since the 1940’s but how it looks isn’t important here - saving your under-flooring is.
You may be thinking this is a lot of money for a temporary fix if your plan is to have your FIL placed in a nursing home. But like I said - consider your under flooring. If you don’t get a handle on this problem tout de suite - when FIL moves out not only will you be pulling up carpet and carpet padding - you’ll be pulling up floor boards as well. That is - if you’re hoping to keep your home from smelling like a men’s gas station urinal. Sorry!
As for all the germs that are being carried through your house by hand? Lysol or Clorox antibacterial wipes. Costco carries a five canister package for around $17.
And when you’re about ready to loose it - remind yourself it could always be worse - Doc hasn’t become bowel incontinent. Not yet.
The beds don’t have normal cloth mattresses, they’re rubberized and they get washed down weekly. Do you have a plastic mattress pad?
They use at least 1 washable pad about 2 x 3’ on top of the fitted sheet. This gets changed every morning along with anything else that’s wet, when they make the bed. They bedding is changed completely once a week, if it’s not soiled in between. The washable pads really help keeping it dry and odor free.
The residents are are on a toileting schedule 3 to 4 times a day routine, to augment if/when they ring for an aid.
Nighttime briefs are usually different from the daytime ones.
Some residents have catheters.
There is NO carpet anywhere except the common living room. The bedrooms and hallways all have the new luxury vinyl tiles that look like wood. Theyre pretty indestructible. Housekkping mops daily and the halls are cleaned with a riding machine weekly. I would highly recommend you pull the carpet out ASAP. The mistakes would be a lot more apparent, and perhaps the cold floor would remind him that it’s not the toilet. Housekeeping also uses chlorox spray for urine smells and other disinfectants to spray down wheelchairs and mattress as needed.
They wash clothes daily, and they come back from the inhouse laundry the next day, hung on hangers like a dry cleaner, and the laundry people put them away.
There are no smells emanating from the rooms (usually). The only smell is from the area where soiled bedding is stored in bins waiting for the housekeeper to collect it.
Handwipes everywhere! Both the machines and the packages. Maybe you could put a dispenser by the kitchen door and implement a policy that everybody uses it before they enter the kitchen.
I hope these may give you some ideas on how the NHs handle it. I’m sure you,ll get more advise from others on how to manage until he’s placed in one.
And I will join the chorus on pulling up the carpet - chances are it is already ruined and once the urine soaks through the underpad and into the sub floor you will be replacing the entire floor in order to get rid of the odour.
Ive been dealing with diapers/pull-ups/Depends now for 25 straight years. And you are right - they ALL leak.
Whether it’s a poor quailty product, the absorbing material gets slightly wet once but then hit again with a full load - which now won’t absorb or the man parts are ill positioned - they all leak.
But I love the idea of a protective pad having sticky corners to help secure staying in place! That’s a new one that I didn’t know of! No matter how many pads I would place in the bed - they’d all end up wadded together in some useless corner of the bed.
Still picking up helpful tips from the wise - here on Aging Care!