Mom had another very bad night last night. I heard her get up around 11pm and came downstairs to help. She had had an urgent need to "race" to the bathroom, and simultaneously Jana needed to go out and she had pushed mom's bedroom door open. So we had a bit of a circus getting everyone to the right bathrooms, and eventually got mom back into bed and Jana settled, and got mom to take a pain pill for her hip.
This morning I came downstairs about 7am and found mom in the bathroom on her knees trying to scrub the carpet because she'd had a small accident. But she was so exhausted and her hip hurt so much that she couldn't get up. I helped her get organized and back to bed. She was really in severe pain from her hip and I even had to lift her legs to help her get back into bed.
Karen the Hospice RN called at 9AM to check on her, and told mom to take two pain pills plus two Lomotil to help with the diarrhea, which she did. All three of us were trying to figure out why mom has two nights in a row of terrible diarrhea. Mom ate different food each night so it couldn't be her dinner, and nothing has changed in her medications. Karen said that mom should take one more Lomotil after each bout of diarrhea, up to 5 a day. Karen asked me to call her around noon for a status report, and mom went back to sleep.
About 20 minutes later I heard mom call me and I went into her bedroom to see what she needed. She had just remembered that she has a whole slew of pills to take in the morning and she thought she should probably not miss them. Mom was kind of fuzzy from the two pain pills, so I had a hard time figuring out what she usually takes in the morning, plus she has her pill bottles stashed in various places to remind her of when to take them--some in the kitchen because she takes them with her breakfast, one on her nightstand because she is supposed to take it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, some in the cabinet in the bathroom, some in the drawer in the bathroom. Holy COW!! Finally mom suggested that I call Kubac's office to get the list of what she takes and when. That was a really good idea, and I ended up with her complete list. Then I started writing out what she takes in the morning, what at noon, and what in the evening and I noticed that she takes two drugs for her chronic colitis--Azacol and Lomotil. Then I remembered that for the last two days in a row, she commented each morning that she had forgotten to take her nighttime pills. Suddenly I began wondering...that meant that two days in a row she had missed her evening dosage of the two pills that help with her chronic diarrhea. Hmmm...I wonder if that could be the cause.
Well regardless of whether that is the cause of her diarrhea, that whole train of thought made me realize that she has gotten too confused in general to be in control of her own drugs. Her drug regime would be complicated for anybody to keep straight, let alone a frail little 85 year old in severe pain from her hip. So I talked to her about me organizing her pills into one of those morning-noon-evening pill boxes (which she has) and she agreed with almost no resistance. So at least I will know that she is getting what she is supposed to get at the time she is supposed to get it.
Lonna the hospice aide came by today for mom's regular Thursday visit, and she helped mom take a shower and wash her hair. She also brought the commode that I had requested, and showed us that it can be used during the day over the toilet to raise the height about 5 inches, and mom really thought that was helpful, because she was having such trouble getting up with her painful hip.
So we are tentatively planning to meet Steve the Hospice Nurse Practitioner at Dr. B's office next Tuesday so he can do a cortisone injection of mom's hip, and in the meantime she will just use the pain pills and her indomitable will power to get through.
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