72 Hour Conversation

Caregiving for Dementia 72 Hour Conversation Episode # 85 When Mama 1st got this dementia the doctor give her a lot of medication to take. A lot of it made Mama sleep. It made Mama pretty much a zombie. So I took half of it away from her. When I took half of the medication away from Mama, Mama woke up. Mama could function a little bit Mama was awake a little bit. Everything was fine. Although Mama still slept a good bit, until Mama broke her hip. When Mama broke her hip, I had asked the doctor for some help take care of her, so the insurance set out 4 or 5 different people to work with Mama couple nurses, a physical therapist, and an aide, and I don’t know who all else. The 1st person to come out, turned out to be a nurse and the 1st thing that she did was go through mamas medication. She found out that they all cause drowsiness. She even said that some of them were interacting with the others. So she took 3 or 4 more pills away from mom on top of everything that I took away. In 72 hours. I’ve had more conversation out of my mother that I’ve had a year or more. Although Mama still sleeps a good bit. She’s awake a lot more and were able to actually carry on a small conversation with her. You can actually make sense out of what she says. Now you still get a lot of jibber jabber, but you can make out enough to know what she’s talking about. This is one of the reasons why I don’t like nursing home very much. They just over medicate all of their patients, so the staff doesn’t have to deal with them. There are a lot easier to take care of. If there sleep in the art of their wake. I don’t know. I guess maybe I’m just abnormal I would rather have my mother awake and talking to me and have to duck from being it carry around scratches and pinch marks than to have Mama a zombie 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. My brother and his wife come down yesterday to visit with Mama for a little while, and Mama actually wanted to get up, go to the dining room table. Drink a cup of milk and talk to them. My mother hasn’t done that, in I don’t know how long. That she didn’t stay long and she didn’t carry on any long extensive conversation, but you could understand enough to carry on a small conversation with Mama. So I’ve said all of this to say that if your loved one is sleeping more than you would like them to adjust their medication yourself. Talk to their doctor and let your doctor know, but the medication is what’s making them sleep, or at least in Mama’s case. So if you don’t want them sleep in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I’d say take half of the medication away from you could always give it back to woman. It’s too much for you, but at least it might wake him up a little bit you might have a little bit of conversation with them.