How to Get a Person Living with Dementia to Drink More?
Okay readers of the Alzheimer's Reading Room its time to provide some insight, advice, and suggestions for a fellow caregiver. She needs our help.By Bob DeMarco +Alzheimer's Reading RoomIn the comments section of the article New Year's Resolution - Be a Guide our reader Karen asks:How can you guide a dementia patient to hydrate?This is an on going battle especially since they have frequent UTI's.Having them drink more fluids is torture.Any suggestions to guide them?Saint John the EvangelistThe Patron Saint of Caregivers Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Tests)What is the Difference Between Alzheime...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - December 30, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
The Role of the Dementia Caregiver - Urinary Tract Infection, Urinary Incontinence
This article is a companion to -- Do you know what happens when an older person has a urinary tract infection and they don't know it?One question that I don't think gets asked often when a person shows signs of urinary incontinence is -- is the person (man or woman) getting) some type of infection? I am referring here specifically to persons living with dementia.Think about it. How many times have you had your loved one tested for a UTI? Does your doctor routinely check your loved one for bladder infections. By routinely, I mean every month. I had my mother checked every month, and we took the urine sample with us to ...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - December 21, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Do you know what happens when an older person has a urinary tract infection and they don't know it?
The silent, and dreaded, urinary tract infection can lead to permanent memory loss and even death in persons living with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. By Bob DeMarco +Alzheimer's Reading Room No sensations. No burning. No warning.No telling when you have Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia.Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading RoomEmail: Here is one thing that is certain.If your loved one living with dementia is a woman the odds are over 70 percent that you are going to experience the wrath of the dreaded urinary tract infection.You read that rightWrath.Gut wrenching. Sadness. Confusion. Anger....
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - December 20, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Literally gouging
In conclusion, we found no evidence of increased risks of mortality, myocardial infarction, bleeding, or stroke,” their research paper said.The other danger to using Avastin, however, has attracted a lot of publicity in recent years.The fact that the drug needs to be repackaged into smaller doses introduces an element of risk because it opens the possibility that the drug could be tainted during the repackaging process. (Genentech says because the FDA has not approved it for use in the eye, the company cannot legally distribute Avastin in doses appropriate for the eye.Indeed, in three cases that made the news — in Sout...
Source: PharmaGossip - December 16, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Undetected Urinary Tract Infection
When a urinary tract infection goes undetected in an Alzheimer's patient they can become mean, delusional, dull, disoriented or worse. Undetected UTIs are common in Alzheimer's and dementia patients.Bing recommendsUrinary Tract Infection, You Can Learn From My Experience+Bob DeMarco +Dementia Reading Room +AlzheimersReadingRoom To learn more about Alzheimer's and Dementia care visit the Alzheimer's Reading Room (Source: The CareGiver)
Source: The CareGiver - December 10, 2013 Category: Caregivers Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Death By Stubbornness: What’s A Doctor To Do?
Over the years that I’ve worked in acute inpatient rehab centers, I have been truly vexed by a particular type of patient. Namely, the stubborn patient (usually an elderly gentleman with a military or armed forces background). I know that it’s not completely fair to generalize about personality types, but it seems that the very nature of their work has either developed in them a steely resolve, or they were attracted to their profession because they possessed the right temperament for it. Either way, when they arrive in the rehab unit after some type of acute illness or traumatic event, it is very challenging t...
Source: Better Health - December 9, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Dr. Val Jones Tags: Opinion True Stories Acute Inpatient Rehab anorexia Downward Spiral Ex-military Infection Motivation Patient Autonomy Physical Medicine And Rehabilitation Physical Therapy Police Officers Psychiatry Stubbornness Veterans Wive Source Type: blogs
Why You Should Never Ignore a Urinary Tract Infection
Urinary tract infections don't go away. Symptoms aren't always present when something is wrong, and it can become very wrong after some time.Contributor: kristina turnerPublished: Dec 08, 2013 (Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content)
Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content - December 8, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Source Type: blogs
The Secure Alzheimer's Environment a Kind of Ground Hog Day
Everyone wants to feel safe and secure. This is particularly true of persons living with Alzheimer's.
+Alzheimer's Reading Room
Dotty was worried about everything under the sun when I first moved to Delray Beach to take care of her.
Money, someone looking in the window, rape, and the most dreaded of them all, the dreaded "Home".
'Home" a bad place where they put you and forget about you when you are old or sick.
Fear factor, ten out ten.
Dotty would say, "you aren't putting me in any home, I'll kill myself first".
Sometimes she threatened to put her head in the oven (we have electric), shoot herself (we don't ...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - November 5, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
UTI and Body Temperature
Did you know that as we age our core body temperature drops and this causes urinary tract infections to go undetected until they worsen. This often results in a visit to the Hospital emergency room or worse, the death of a person living with Alzheimer's.
By Bob DeMarco
+Alzheimer's Reading Room
One of the worst things that happens to a person living with Alzheimer's is the dreaded UTI - urinary tract infection.
UTIs are common, very common in dementia patients - especially women.
UTIs often lead to dire circumstances including death!!!
UTIs hasten memory loss, and they make Alzheimer's patients mean, chal...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - November 4, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Urinary tract infection will you have memory loss?
Years ago, before we discovered that my mother was likely suffering from a series of rolling urinary tract infections, my mother woke up one morning and seemed to be completely disoriented. Obviously, this was disconcerting.
Researchers have found a link between common infections, such as a cold, stomach bug or urine infection and an increase in inflammation like reactions in the brain which lead to an increased rate of cognitive decline.
Study results show that people who got an infection had twice the rate of memory loss as people without infections.
Yahoo Search RecommendsUrinary Tract Infections Can Hasten Memory L...
Source: CareGiver, The - October 30, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Healthy Nurses and The Self-Care Bandwagon
A few weeks ago, I was talking on the phone with a colleague who is not a nurse himself but who interacts with nurses on a regular basis in his professional life. His comments about nurses and their self-care (or lack thereof) were extremely thought-provoking.Like I have said on this blog many times before, nurses are renowned for not taking good care of themselves, ostensibly because they're so busy taking care of others and living the lives of the saints that they are perceived to be. Let's face it. We all know that nurses aren't saints, while we also acknowledge that many nurses come close to sainthood vis-a-vis t...
Source: Digital Doorway - October 29, 2013 Category: Nurses Tags: nurse nurse self care nurse wellness nurses nursing self-care Source Type: blogs
Dementia Patients Face Needless Transitions in Last 90 Days of Life
This study finds such transitions are not consistent with goals of providing dying patients with comfort.
+Alzheimer's Reading Room
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that
nearly one in five nursing home residents with advanced dementia experiences burdensome transitions in the last 90 days of life.
This includes moving to a different facility in the last three days of life or repeat hospitalizations for expected complications of dementia in the last 90 days of life.
"Ultimately, all of these problems are signs of care gone awry. The best care for a patient with advanced cognitive impairment near t...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - October 24, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Millenson reminds us that we are behind
If the effectiveness of a prophet is measured by the degree to which s/he makes people uncomfortable with the status quo, we have to give Michael Millenson top honors. In 1997, he wrote Demanding Medical Excellence and gave widespread attention to the safety and quality problems in hospitals. He wrote:From ulcers to urinary tract infections, tonsils to organ transplants, back pain to breast cancer, asthma to arteriosclerosis, the evidence is irrefutable. Tens of thousands of patients have died or been injured year after year because readily available information was not used – and is not being used tod...
Source: Running a hospital - October 9, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
There Is No I In Team
I was spiking a fever.
It was as if someone flipped a light switch inside my body. I could feel the sensation rise through the chest, and trample the dazed contents of my skull. Light, however, was a poor, lazy metaphor. There was no heat, only stimulation.
My belly ached from the repetitive heaving that preceded the fever. I envisioned the sandwich I had eaten that afternoon. I pictured small bacteria crowding into the generous dollop of mayonnaise wantonly placed by the store clerk. It was food poisoning. I was sure of it.
I cautiously sipped from the glass of water on the bedside table. My mouth, parched and yearnin...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - October 1, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
One is too many
An excellent story here about Jordan Hospital's success in avoiding catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). Note the important elements of process improvement, starting right with the governing body. Note, too, the lack of acceptance of industry benchmarks: The aim is zero. Zero is achieved!Excerpts:An intensive education program involving the hospital's Board of Trustees and personnel in the Emergency Department, Critical Care Center (CCC) and other units throughout the hospital, has been followed by daily and even hourly assessments of patients with catheters. The surveillance, discus...
Source: Running a hospital - September 24, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
