Mom is very independent and lives alone. Contracted COVID a month ago and was hospitalized for a few days. Over the past few weeks, she has been having difficulty taking her meds. My sisters and I have set up her medications in a pill organizer. She also takes insulin several times a day. The problem is, she cannot remember which little box to take her pills from. She does fine when one of us is there with her (we make her do it)-she reads and follows directions well, but then says she can't do it if one of us isn't there. She knows what day it is, date, cooks, etc. just like normal but, for some reason, cannot figure out the pill thing. Any ideas on what we can do to help her? Some days, she does really well and needs no help or reminding but it's getting worse every.single.day. She will be evaluated by the neurologist in 3 more months as he has a 4 month wait list. Ugh.
You say you know "she's not ready for long term care" yet it's obvious she does need help and guidance daily, at least with medications. Keep an eye out for more issues which can crop up slowly or quickly, sometimes overnight. Mom was fine until one day she emptied her bladder 100% on the elevator up to her AL apartment. One day she's fully continent, next day THAT. From that day forward, she quit arguing that she didn't need Depends and thus began her 6 year struggle with dementia.
Whether your Mom has covid fog, dementia, or both, she's showing you a need for more help. See if you can hire in home help to assist her w whatever crops up next.
Good luck to you
I believe that this mom needs to be in a care facility as some of my friends now are after Covid. Medication management is important, and there’s no point of waiting for brain fog to go away when it may never go away. Plenty of research indicates that Covid accelerates cognitive decline.
Keep that in mind whenever someone tells you the pandemic is over. For the elderly population, it’s creating problems that will affect them and their caregivers for the rest of their lives. And then there’s the CNA in my doctors office. She’s only 30, got Covid that her child brought home from school where precautions are not taken. She was in the hospital for several days and now has a heart irregularity that she may be living with the rest of her life. No one can say if it will get better.
You should also examine her house to see if there are any other subtle signs of cognitive problems: unopened mail, unpaid bills, check register in chaos, etc. My MIL had ordered dozens and dozens of boxes of checks because she kept forgetting she ordered them and where she put them. She also had $930+ in overdraft fees when I checked her unopened monthly bank statement. These are "easy" signs to look for. It will help in getting anwers.
Discount all other possible medical issues that can cause her current symptoms while waiting to see the neurologist. In particular, make sure she is eating and drinking properly. Don't go by what she says... make sure you see it with your own eyes.
Other signs were there that something was wrong (don't assume she is cooking for herself)... don't assume all is well. Use your eyes.
Really truly folks are doing this.
Google “Can Alexa be used for Reminders?” There will be a bunch of options, just sub out for medications then seniors. Folks are doing this.
And you can do the camera on Alexa too if you want to be watching what’s happening although if she starts touching it, that becomes an issue. I would NOT do anything iwatch, it’s way way tooooooo small. It gets touted to be used for health stuff, imho, no way it’s feasible.
fwiw when I started looking at facilities (IL to AL to NH ages ago), I’d see ladies who seemed to me perfectly fine but in the NH…. like appropriately dressed, hair done, wearing jewelry, seemingly social, milling around the nurses station or the activity center…. they didn’t look like they needed to be in a NH. I asked why they were in a NH as I was kinda expecting more elderly “infirm” at the NH. They were there as they needed “medication management” and the RXs they were on were such that they needed oversight. Your mom being on insulin would be this. Medication management is a very real care category and qualifier for a bed in a skilled nursing care facility. Keep that in mind as it may come in handy should you need to place mom into a facility.
Speaking of Covid. I'm sorry, but with my research, it may never go away. Variant and sub-variant virus strains continues to spike, with the latest type in India and Nepal. I've been told to not worry, yet several of my friends and some family got breakthrough infections after getting updated booster shots! We are in a new normal. Once long Covid happens, I doubt that it goes away. It is an ugly life sentence.
Amazon has automatic pill dispensers with alarms you can evaluate for her. My mom refused it because of the alarm.
The insulin is a much more serious issue along with checking her glucose everyday.
Most likely the Covid fogged her brain and who knows if she will recover from that.
If he doesn't take right away he'll get reminders every 5 minutes, a phone call at 15 minutes and I'll get a phone call also. There's robust reporting also. And I get emails daily when a med has less than a 30 day supply. You can set the days for that, eg less than 10 days. I can't speak highly enough about this. It gives him a sense of control and me the comfort of knowing he gets his meds at the same time everyday in the right doses.
I do still need to check that he hadn't unknowingly dropped any one they've been dispensed but that occurrence reduced significantly since I updated the recorded messages to describe to him the pills he's taking at that specific time.
Did you do this before or after she started having trouble?
See All Answers