I am primary caregiver for my 86 year old mom. She has been complaining of abdominal pain for years, she has had numerous x-rays, scans etc. and they can find nothing wrong. This morning she was so distraught of because of the pain she wanted me to call an ambulance for her. She said If I wouldn't do it that I should call my oldest brother to see if he would. I drove her to the er. She got in right away and they did blood tests and x-ray but all was normal. Her blood pressure was high most likely due to pain and the emotional turmoil she was in. The were able to give her dilauded for the pain and it finally got under control. Most of the time we were there she was confused about where we were and why we were there. She didn't seem to remember that she had insisted on going.
She is on a regular schedule of pain medications which apparently do nothing for this specific pain. She has several health issues besides the dementia.
I have noticed that this seems to be worse for her in the morning and by noon she has usually settled down and doesn't mention it again until the next morning. I guess my main question is how can I talk her down (so to speak) when this inevitably happens again? She does not remember anything now about being at the hospital and we have only been home an hour.
I am trying to get her back on palliative care. She had been on hospice until early May when it looked like things were under control.
Anybody else out there dealing with something like this?
She cries out when sitting with her legs up or down.
She struggles when she moves with her walker to get to her stair lift and on bad days even when she uses the commode only a couple of steps away.
The district nurses, who dress her legs daily, say they aren't that bad compared to some they see and some are sceptical about the amount of crying out she does when they change the bandages.
Some days she is gasping saying, "I can't stand it." and "It's sheer agony." literally continuously. She grimaces and clenched her hands. It's awful to watch and not to be able to help her.
Other times she is less hysterical but still constantly saying her legs are so sore and she can't stand it.
The only peace she gets is when she's asleep.
She is on a huge amount of painkillers which actually seem to make no difference:
10mc butrans morphine patch weekly
5 ml oral morphine 4 or more times a day
600mg Gabapentin 4 times a day
2 paracetamol 4 times a day.
Last week the doctor tried 1/2 Lorazepam twice a day but she fell over twice so we stopped that.
She has now increased to a 20mc morphine patch but even this has't eased her pain and distress.
Has anyone else experienced an Alzheimer's sufferer feeling such extreme pain and have you found a solution?
Thanks, Margaret Neil