My mother had her pacemaker battery changed this past Tuesday. Wednesday morning I found Steri-Strips and gauze in her sheets. She had pulled everything off during the night. I brought her back to the Pacemaker Lab yesterday and they redressed the wound. However, a few hours later, she had taken everything off again while I was not watching her. I am her full time, live in caregiver.
buckandbuck/womens-clothing/womens-jumpsuits/back-zip-jumpsuits.html
These are jumpsuits with a zipper in the back that look like cute two-piece comfy outfits. They are designed to foil the 'inappropriate undresser' :-)
It sounds like your mom is pretty good at getting her dressings off. Would your doctor okay you just using a spray-on bandage?
1. Write 'do not remove' in magic marker. Works sometimes.
2. Wrap with a self-adherent type bandage like Coban, if possible, and safety pin it shut in an area the person can't see.
3. Here's an Idea I haven't tried yet, but I think it has potential if the wound is on a limb: get a piece of shrink-wrap (they used to have it at Paper Shack) and use a blow dryer to shrink it snugly, but not tightly, around the limb, over the bandage. The heavy duty stuff is impossible to get off without scissors.
4. You can also put signs around the room explaining why she has a bandage and that she should not remove it. It also helps to put a picture of the wound on there because that's what the deal usually is - they don't remember what happened and are anxious about what is underneath the bandage.
I went back to the nursing home with my mom, but the nurses said they had to wrap her foot tightly because she kept taking the bandage off. That makes no sense to me at all. I really don't know what to do. When my husband gets home, I'm going to talk to him about bringing her to our house and just using home health.
Good luck,
Carol