I am the one that listens all the time - almsot every night. But I only sometime write, due to my health and the ever increasing need for me to be at my parents house and/or FILs.
Here is my and my moms problem. I guess my dads too. He just go a pacemaker a little over 2 weeks ago. The surger meds and pain meds, lasted for 5 days after. He remembers not much of that time. He did come back up some, from his worsened AD and Parkinsons. But, still has a few problems.
Here is the one in most urgent need of help from yall: My dad takes most of his pills at night. My mom gives him his pills a few at a time (from the Sun-Sat 2x day pill container that I fix up. He seems to not under stand how to take the pills. He will not let her put them in his mouth and then drink some. But, when she tries (and me, too) to put a few in his hand, he either drops them or seems not to know how to put them in his mouth and then take a drink of water.
So, any suggestions from my fellow caregivers???? I go back on Mon. and we leave on Wed. for Thanksgiving about 5 hours away (he is going also) and I would like to have him taking pills and well rested! So, if you guys have any ideas or tried and true things that we can do to get him to take and swallow his pills, we would really appreciate yalls help.
Mum could use a mortar & pestle to crush his med's and put them in a jelly sandwich .. but be sure to find out if his med's are enteric coated .. enteric coated med's can't be crushed.
The anaesthetic used can take quite a few weeks to get out of his system, so it's entirely possible for him to be foggy for some time. Anaesthetics can and do affect our AD loved ones much more than a healthy individual, and they don't always recover, although your Dad seems to be a bit of a fighter, with some luck he'll bounce back.
2 weeks is only early days .. be patient and use your strategies!!
The magic word is APPLESAUCE! I had the same problem with ny husband. Putting the pills in a spoonfull of applesauce made all the difference. They just slid down.
Beatrice
When my grandma was in the hospital, they had some pre-crushed pills that came in a packet, which was added to apple sauce, pudding, etc. I would probably describe there consitency as granular. Maybe that is an option. Another option would be to get a liquid form, to be added to beverages.
I appreciate yall answering me back. You all have some good ideas! I will see if he will take them with applesauce. Or I guess that I can look them up on the internet and see which ones can be crushed.
I wish that the nurses or drs involved would have told us that the knock out meds (or almost knock out) would stay with him for so long. It was just so weird and we were so unprepared for him to be so helpless and very confused. Plus he cannot stand the sling on his arm. But, he gets that off in 1 more week.
One more question on this part of my thread: If I/we decide to crush most of his pills, how long would they stay good, crushed and in a 7 day, 2x day, pill holder? See, I only go there about 2 times a week. Of course, some weeks it is much more, like these last 2 weeks.
Here is something that my husband, Steve and I were thinking about trying. What if we got ahold of some of those tiny pill cups that they have in the hospitals? If my mom could just put 2 pills at a time in one of those plastic or paper pill cups, then he might could toss them back (if I explained it very well, about 3 times, to both of them! Do you guys think that might work also?
Just trying to have back up remedies or solutions to have in case, one of them does not always work.
Thanks everyone for your help. If you think of anything else, pertaining to the taking of pills. Hopefully this will get better. But you never know about this illness - sometimes things work and sometimes other things work?!!! :>
Some of my dads pills are small and some are large. Only one is a capsule, his stool softener (from Walmart!). The rest could be crushed, but until he has helpers or moves to a home, I guess we should not do it. My mom is not the least interested in crushing pills!!! She thinks we could mostly take only 1 or 2. Interesting, because that is how many pills she takes and she has uncontrolled diabetes. She should be taking Aricept, blood pressure meds, and a couple of others. I believe she takes the Aricept one day a week! :> :> :>
My mom said that she was trying using a shot glass to give my dad his pills. Hopefully she only puts in 1 or 2. I will ask her on Monday when I go back to their house. I could ask my dad about his pill taking, but sometimes he knows what he (him and my mom) is doing and sometimes he forgets!
I did tell my mom about the applesauce idea and she said she might try that sometimes. I can understand why it is hard for my dad to take a couple of his pills. His allergy pill and his vitamin pill, are both big...
Thanks Sally, for "harassing the Nurses". I am glad you are sneaky!!!!! :>
Take care and I hope to catch up on my sleep tomorrow.
