Does anyone know of a medicine that might stop or slow down wandering?
I tried bringing him to an Alzheimer's day care and they called me to come get him because he keeps going outside looking for me and they don't have 1 on 1 staff, only 2 volunteers.(This is a church based place) They have an alarm on the door but that doesn't stop him. The door only locks from the outside. They said he went out at least 10 times.

I called another care center and they said they don't take wanderers. What can I do? I need some time to myself and no one else can stay with him? I don't feel he needs to be in long term care yet. He is mostly confused and bored, I think. He has no attention span anymore and his memory is about 5 seconds long. He still can do activities of daily living with help.

This has been a really rough week for me as I have had the stomach bug for 3days and still don't feel right. All I wanted to do was rest but every 10 minutes I had to jump up and see where he was. He constantly paces and goes outside to "look around." He didn't realize I was sick even though I told him and he saw me barfing dozens of times. I couldn't eat or drink anything for 3 days but of course had to get up to feed him.

He is on Aricept, Namenda, Zoloft , Risperdal and Trazadone. We hve already tried the Seroquel with no improvment which is why he is on Risperdal now.

Is there a prn medicine that can be used safely in AD patients.

Any suggestions welcome.

Dear Ceedee, it sounds like you really have your hands full.

As far as I know the only medicines that stop night wandering are ordinary sleeping pills, and you can't keep a person sedated all day long. He really needs to be in a place with locks inside the doors, high up where they are not noticed or reachable by the patients. I can see why an ordinary day care center for adults would not be able to deal with someone who keeps leaving.

Maybe it is time for you to consider a nursing home.

My Mom is in stage 6 and I can't imagine how in the world I could still have her at home as I did for 5 years. She gets wonderful care there, and someone is watching her every minute, which you cannot do at home. You are only one person, but they have 3 shifts on the nursing staff. (and they get sick days off!)

At this nursing home people can go out into an inner courtyard, the doors to that are open, But the doors to the outside world are only accessible with a code you have to punch into a monitor. If a patient should manage to 'sneak' out by following an employee or a visitor, an alarm goes off because every patient has a device on them.

Maybe you want to reconsider your options

Good luck and I hope you are over the tummy bug by now.

love,

Martha