July 19th, 2016 10:02 PM
Our mom has been in the hospital for 5 weeks with a broken ankle in 3 places. We were with her 12 - 14 hours a day because it was an acute care site and they didn't have another facility that would take her because of her dementia. We helped because the staff were so busy they didn't have the time to spend with her that she needed. She ended up having surgery so can now weight bear with an air boot cast on. We have moved her back to her home in assisted living with 24/7 care.
We were hoping she would settle down but she is extremely agitated and doesn't like have someone she doesn't know with her 24/7. The HCA's are trying their best but she will call us 30 times in an evening asking us to come over and tell this person to go home!!! She isn't being nice to them at all.
She is on pain medication and Risperdal 2X a day and that works some of the time but most evenings are bad for her and them. Her Dr. doesn't want to prescribe a sleeping pill with the other medication because she is concerned she may get drowsy and fall. She isn't sleeping much - maybe only 5 or 6 hours a night. We have adjusted the air boot so it’s as loose as it can be. We do still go everyday and try to distract her with music, colouring, TV, photo albums, reading stories, walks etc but she isn't interested in anything except getting the air boot off. We go back to the doctor tomorrow and am going to ask if there is something else she could try - maybe a walking cast.
In the mean time does anyone have any ideas of how to reduce her aggression without medicating her? Feel badly for her and the HCA's,