My 99 year old mom is bedridden with Alzheimer’s. I need to take her blood pressure regularly but the arm cuff is too painful for her when it inflates so she then moves too much to get a reading. I want to try using a wrist BP monitor but the instructions say you have to be seated with your wrist held at heart level. Does anyone have experience using a wrist BP monitor with someone who is laying down? Thanks!
Honestly if mom has advanced Alzheimer's and is bed bound does her blood pressure really matter? (truthfully I'm not trying to be nasty but....)
do you have Hospice come in?
The Nurse would take her BP each week.
Then after I was in bed, they took it again. It was high in the chair. It was high lying down.
My meds have been doubled. My dad had high blood pressure and heart disease. My brothers have high blood pressure and heart disease.
I have used a wrist monitor and an arm monitor. My doctor said that she doesn’t care which one I use as long as she test it in her office for accuracy.
The literature always says to take BP sitting up. They continually take our BP while lying down in the hospital, so I asked the nurse in the hospital to share her opinion on it. She said that it was just a slight difference in the reading if we are lying down.
The hospice nurse would occasionally also put the arm cuff on his ankle to get a read as well, but because it was on his lower extremity it was usually about 10 points off give or take a few points.
I can certainly relate to a BP cuff being extremely painful as I have fibromyalgia and it's quite excruciating for me to have my BP taken on my upper arms. Often they will just use a child's BP cuff and put it around my wrists instead.
Oh and by the way, the wrist BP monitor was actually quite accurate, so why not give it a try?