Purple Sunshine - For All Caregivers, Welcome!
  • Home
  • Smile
  • Cure
  • Care Tips
  • Your Story
  • Theme Song

Tic Tacs are great pain killers

3/21/2011

0 Comments

 
This post comes to us from Jean D'Amore.  
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I found your website today and have been reading non stop. It is so reassuring when you discover that others go through the same experiences as you have when it comes to being a caregiver of a loved one with Alzheimer's. I care for my husband's mom. She is 94, a below the knee amputee and mostly in a wheel chair. The best thing I was able to do for myself was find a medical Day Care that mom now attends 3 days a week. Every time we are ready to go she asks if I am taking her to "that place" again and then tells me it is stupid. I blame her doctor...it isn't me who insists, but the doctor. This helps her reluctantly put on her coat and go. As of late, she is dealing with phantom pain. It seems to be severe and I think she believes it is new. The reality of the situation is that she has had this pain for 14 years. I had her checked out by the appropriate doctor for this situation and he prescribed a lidoderm patch. She seems to be in more pain when I or my husband are in the room with her. If I listen over the baby monitor, there are no sounds of pain, so it is difficult to know if this is her acting out or real. When I ask if the patch is helping, she says she needs pain pills. SO, now I am administering this really powerful pain medication....TIC TACS. I have four colors...when these stop working we plan to move to the next color. This has only been going on a few days, so not sure this is working and I will bring her back to the doctor if this lasts more than another week. Mom doesn't need physical care as much as she needs supervision. It seems every time I go out for a brief time she manages to get into trouble. For these reasons I don't get out much. Sometimes this is ok...sometimes it is not and I get somewhat depressed. My husband takes over most evenings, so I get out a little then. And thank goodness for my daycare days. I work on one of them and the other two I generally run all the errands I cannot do when mom is home. I'm glad I found your website, I will continue to visit and also look for your posts on Facebook.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author - Sharon Kim

    My mother was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  It took our family 3 years to get proper diagnosis.  My sister and my father who are the primary caregivers for my mom are going through extreme challenges dealing with the impact of this disease.  This is what inspired me to create and dedicate 4URLOVE to all the caregivers of Alzheimer's patients in the world for their commitment, love, sacrifice and unfathomable patience. 

    Archives

    June 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010

    Categories

    All
    Affirmation
    Alzheimers
    Bath
    Caregiving
    Change
    Change Management
    Cooking
    Courage
    Daycare
    Dementia
    Denial
    Devotion
    Diagnosis
    Dinner
    Doll Therapy
    Early Dementia
    Emotional Swings
    Exercise
    Family
    Fear
    Feelings
    Finding Cure
    Forgiveness
    Getting Buy-in
    Gift Of Life
    Grief
    Grieving
    Hiding
    Honesty
    Hospice Care
    Hygiene
    Ideas
    Leadership
    Lifestyle Changes
    Love
    Medication
    Memory And Emotional Connection
    Memory Loss
    Missing A Loved One
    Outburst
    Over-dose
    Persistence
    Poem
    Promises
    Quality Care
    Separating With Your Loved One
    Shower
    Smile
    Support Group
    Suspicion
    Teenager
    Walking

    RSS Feed