My mom is good about going to the bathroom during the day and rarely wets her pull up. She goes to bed with a diaper and a pull up on over the diaper and the diaper is loaded to the max in urine as well as the pull up in the mornings. And the odor is awful. Does she need to see a urologist? Is there something that can be surgically done to help her? She is 81 and she had a stroke in November of 2009. Is this normal? we have even limited her liquids at night, nothing seems to change the amount of urine in the diaper. It must be so uncomfortable to sleep in all night. Any advice is appreciated.
Like Naheaton, I was also thinking about the diuretic effect of some medications. Call her nutritionist and ask for tips. She might be eating too much "soft" food.
My mother has had two strokes in the past 4 yrs. and now has middle to late stages of Alzheimer's. I take her to the bathroom every 3-4 hours. After I used the bathroom, I take her to the bathroom to pee if she has to or not.
She need to drink a full cup of water with the medicine at night. I give her the medicine 1/2 hr after dinner (6:30 pm), wait 30 minutes again, then take her to the bathroom (7:00 pm). After she pee, I wait an hour or so, take her again right before bed (8:00-8:30 pm), that way her bladder is emptied out. She goes again when I go to bed at 10:30 pm. This usually works and she'll stay dry overnight till 6:30 am. If I give her medicine with one cup of water too late into the night, she tends to have more accidents in the morning.
With Dementia or Alzheimer's the elderly parent don't know /or can't remembers how to get up and use the bathroom at night.
You could try what others' have written about setting a timer to wake you up at night or finding out about infections.
You have to think of your parent as a child, they don't know any better and they need your help.
Good luck to you.
Definitely make sure you get a urine sample to the doctor as soon as possible to make sure she doesn't have an infection. By a plastic "hat" to put over the toilet seat to catch the urine. It's too hard to get them to go into a container. If the urine comes back negative, then the only thing you can do is get her up a few hours after going to bed and change her and have her go again. You will soon be able to tell what time is best to do this. It has been very frustrating for me in the past, but now It seems to be under control. Going the med route is not good either. Bladder control meds in the elderly can cause more confusion and are best not used if your mom already has dementia or issues with confusion. Good luck. I hope this helps.
She is too wet, and needs to be changed more often.
Hope this helps.