Elder CareTips:
Mastering The Eldercare Maze™
February 1, 2005
That Horrid Woman
Stole My Teeth:
Paranoia & Dementia
|
As a rank beginner in the field of eldercare
I was excited to finally be turned loose to make my first
independent home visit. It went well, I thought, until I
returned to the office. At the door I was met by my
supervisor. She informed me that she had just logged an
official complaint from the client I had left not 20 minutes
earlier: The client's teeth were missing. The teeth were
there before I arrived, and they were now missing. The
conclusion was obvious.
I was devastated. Later the dentures were found by the
client's daughter, wrapped in a napkin and stuffed in the
toe of a slipper. Everyone had a good laugh, but I'll never
forget the feeling of shock and indignation I felt at being
unjustly accused. Lucky for me it was teeth (who would want
those?) and not an expensive piece of jewelry that went
temporarily missing.
People who have Alzheimer's or other dementing illnesses
must struggle with their reality that every moment is a new
moment. There is often no memory of the moment that went
before. Things inexplicably disappear when you have no
memory of having moved them. When your things are constantly
disappearing, the "logical" solution is to hide them in a
safe place where no one will find them. And then they are
lost again.
Read The Rest...
When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it
happened or not.
|
Another Way To Check Medication Safety
|
With the rash of recent headlines concerning
drugs being pulled off the shelves, patients are looking for
additional sources to check on the safety of their
medications. PhRMA, the pharmaceutical- industry trade
group, has made the
results of clinical studies from the last two years
available to both patients and doctors. The purpose of the
database
is to make clinical trial results for U.S.-marketed
pharmaceuticals
more transparent.
For those of you who want to know more about
the medications you and your elders are taking, I can
heartily recommend
The Pill Book.
I use my copy so often that the cover is falling off - guess
I'll have to spring for a new one soon. At less than seven
dollars and more than 1200 pages covering 1800 drugs, and
with color photographs of the most widely prescribed, it's a
steal.
Store similarly shaped containers with
different types of products in separate locations. For
instance, hair sprays and bug killers both come in similar
aerosol containers. Both are often used in the bathroom. It
would be easy for someone with poor vision or dementia to
pick up the wrong container.
| In any moment of decision
the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next
best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you
can do is nothing.
|
