My 83 yrs old Mother in Law has Severe Sciatica Any help in here re pain management in ALZ patients?

Patrick McG

It's been over 3 weeks since sciatica took her to the ER. Not much help from docs. Just Lots of drugs. No in home nurse provided. We're on our own. She forgets she had a heavy med just 5 minutes earlier and is always screaming for more. Because her pain is always new pain, even if it improves we often dont know it cause to her it's Bad! I also heard that sciatica is common in dementia patients.

mommyandme (m&m)

Hi, welcome to this place, sorry you find the need though. Lots of helpful, wise and supportive folks here.

My mother had back problems for years, nothing ever seemed to help. Sciatica was always a possibility, she’d had hip and back surgery. She was also hyper focused on it for so long. She’d almost start every conversation with anyone and everyone about it, even before a dementia diagnosis. I don’t know about dementia and sciatica as a team. When we were preparing her to move out of state to be near me, I mentioned we’d work on finding new doctors that could help. (Might be one reason she was amenable to the idea of moving, I’ll never know). Unfortunately we were unsuccessful. She seemed to become a bit depressed after not feeling better. I mentioned this to her PCP and she prescribed Cymbalta for mom. The doc said it had properties to help with depression and pain. It was a miracle for us, mostly. Either her dementia took her focus off of the pain or Cymbalta did. I had to titrate her up and when we first started it there was a behavior burp, but it evened out and we continued it for quite some time. Her neurologist also prescribed 5% lidocaine patches which may have helped a bit too. I didn’t use the patches everyday like the Cymbalta. She wasn’t very mobile after awhile, therefore I used a boppy cushion in her everyday recliner that was incredibley helpful. Put the opening toward the back of her chair to keep her weight off her coccyx. It was a daily irritant to get her on it right but she didn’t complain of pain. All the coccyx cushions in the world did not help but the boppy nursing pillow was the trick. This is what helped us, not everything is for everyone.

I hope you can find a solution to help your MIL. The struggles are real.

Susand125

I use what's called a Roho mosaic cushion. It is fantastic. My mother is on that cushion most of day. It's in her recliner

No breakdown, she's comfy.

Patrick McG

I swear I saw more comments in here earlier, now they're gone. Admin?