Incontinence - sign of last stage?

wctraynor

My mom has started pooping her pants and not even realizing it happened. She has been mostly Urine incontinent for year but this poop thing is beyond my capabilities as caregiver. She had a fall last week and still in pain even though no fracture, but she doesn't want to be out of bed for more than a few minutes and won't sit up even though the bed is electric to help with sitting. I give her only Tylenol every 4 hours for the pain since the doctor said the muscle relaxers are having a paradoxical effect. (manic and hyper behavior). I just cleaned her up right now, but she still had no idea she had pooped. What is going to happen going forward?

Hope5757

We’re not there yet. But, one thing that’s been consistent with us is that all stress (physical or emotional) impacts MIL. COVID resulted in hallucinations and delusions. Significant family conflict resulted in so much confusion and sleeping hours and hours.

Last night MIL had a catastrophic reaction and has been sleeping all day.

Most of the time, she went back close to baseline. So, hopefully as your mom recovers from the fall, she’ll recover her ability to control her bowel movements.

harshedbuzz

@wctraynor

Incontinence and falls are both later stage symptoms.

Many caregivers break disease progression into a 7 Step Model; most are similar to this one-

https://tala.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Tam-Cummings-LLC-Handouts.pdf

Your mom sounds stage 6 by your description here. You can read further for stage 7 symptoms and those symptoms associated with active dying.

If you haven't asked for a hospice evaluation, please consider that. You don't need a doctor's note or approval for an evaluation. They can provide hands-on help, pain management, supplies, bath aides and emotional/spiritual support for you both.

HB

wctraynor

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/204691#Comment_204691

thank you. we are definitely looking into Hospice eval this week. I'm considering a nursing home or hospice house since I can't deal with this level of care and work full time too. She's so fragile right now its hard to watch. A few Tylenol a day is just not cutting it.