Softening the Bedrails to Prevent Injury

Rksk67

Hello Everyone, this is my first post here, although I have been following many discussions over time as I care for my sweet husband who was diagnosed with mid- stage mixed vascular dementia two years ago.
Sadly, he fell and broke his hip two months ago, which of course has affected both his dementia and his progress in walking again in very negative ways.
My question for any of you who have bedrails installed on the beds of your LO’s is this: My husband is constantly trying to get out of bed at night, even with a broken hip, which has resulted in needing full bedrails. Consequently, and also because he is very active at night, he has rubbed sores on hands, arms, feet, and legs from the metal bedrails trying to leave the bed. Because he is on a blood thinner, many of these rubs end up bleeding, so my poor guys often has many scabs from this as well.
I find many of you here very ingenious and so I ask if any of you may have experienced this or have a suggestion you think could soften these rails. I would be very appreciative of any ideas you might have.
Thank you so much!!

Biggles

What challenging situations we find ourselves in with this disease. I have no experience or anything to offer but you sound so patient and loving I hope someone comes up with an idea for your situation. Keep in touch, take care.

ronda b

You can wrap the rails in a blanket and tape. Or get bedrail mats

You cam order them. Them have velcro to keep them in place.

Sweetwater

Would the foam insulation for water pipes possibly work? They are tubular and slit to fit around the pipe.

housefinch

Is he on hospice? It might be worth considering a consult. They might have additional ideas and maybe could evaluate if he’s in pain or agitated, which could be causing him to get up. They might be able to use medication to keep him calmer. They also could reevaluate his current medications to trim them to the minimum needed. Just a thought.

cdgbdr

Old nurse here. You have received some good advice already. Bedrails can be padded for this very reason. You can look online for something made for that or fashion something with blankets. If you have him at home and don't have home health coming in, please request that from his provider of care. They will have suggestions to help with care.

cdgbdr

I just looked and Amazon has several types of padding for bedrails. Most were in the $40.00 range. Walmart also had some.

ImMaggieMae

It sounds to me like the real problem is him trying to get out of the bed at night, not hurting himself on the bedrails. If you cover them with some type padding, won’t he just try to climb over them and risk falling from a greater height? It seems to me like you have 2 choices: some type of alarm system to alert you to get up and convince him to stay in bed, or use some type of medication to make him less agitated and sleepy at night so he gets needed rest. An alarm system would likely keep you awake half the night responding to it. I would talk to his doctor about medication. My DH takes Gabapentin before bedtime, that was prescribed for neuropathy and leg cramps but also has the side effect of making him sleepy. He takes 6mg of melatonin along with it. He also takes Risperidone twice a day. He sleeps like a baby all night.