My dad has been falling more and more over the past year. This is partly due to a combination of all the meds he takes and low blood pressure. He is in the advanced stages of Parkinsons's with dementia. His doctors and physical therapists have told him and instructed him on standing up, either from lying in bed or from sitting in a chair. He needs to do it in slow stages so that his blood pressure levels out and he can stand without the dizziness or passing out, which leads to him falling.
His bedroom is the only room in the house that has carpeting (wall to wall). But his dementia causes him to use the bathroom wherever he wants in the house (which he thinks he has gone into the bathroom), including in his room on the carpet. He wears depends, but usually removes them when he feels he needs to use the bathroom. I am not frustrated with this because I understand his "state of mind", but I am comtemplating removing the carpet and laying down tile. This would make for much easier clean up and freshing the air much faster, so when you walk in the front door, you are not blasted with a vial urine or feces smell. And if he wants to lay down in his bed, I can't have him in there like that with that fowl odor until it disipates and drys.
My only concern is his falls. I know the tile floor, obviously is a much harder surface to fall on and I won't be able to put down area rugs because of slippage or tripping.
His safety is first and foremost. But it has gotten so that the rug does not dry up between accidents.
Help!
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Laminate will have seams that urine can get down into, and wood floor will too. On tile, the grout is porous, and will absorb the urine, and it will smell too. You need seamless vinyl. Plus, you can install it yourself, to save money.
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I'm gonna go with tiling the room. I already have the tile from when I renovated his home I orginally bought enough to do the whole house.
Once that's down, then I'll try out those interlocking rubber floor tiles to hopefully soften the blow a bit in case he falls.
Again thanks. I've always said... you don't know unless you ask. If you don't open your mouth no one knows of the help you need and you can't learn from the experiences of others.
God bless!
I say, the carpet goes! I liked the brighly colored interlocking rubber squares that mariesmom in my kitchen for a while. Easy to stand on.
They seem to see "the illusion of motion" and for even more FUN, it is very episodic. With my mom, she saw the carpeted flooring in the hallway of her old IL as uneven cobblestones and saw levels in the floor that weren't there. So the flat foot shuffle makes total sense in it's strange way.
Is he on a Vertigo med? My mom is on Mezclizine - gets it twice a day. It does make a difference as she can rebalance & find an equilibrium.
Sounds like he has BPV - benign positional vertigo. My mom has this. BPV happens if you're sitting down and then try to get up fast and get dizzy, or have been laying down and then sit up fast - the blood pressure drops and they get dizzy, sometimes even fall back into the bed or the chair. Did they tell him to do this when sitting: hand pumps - have an open hand down by their side dangling then make a fist and hold for a couple of seconds and work it up till their hands are even with their shoulders. And to do the bed roll: before getting out of bed roll side to side a couple of times then sit up and wait a count of ten to stand.
I know your fear as BVP causes huge number of falls and can be really manageable if you can get them to so simple things like the above. The fact that he is still ambulatory is just great. Good luck!
He has the 4 wheel walker & I have just recently been thinking to change that as well. It has gotten away on him sometimes. He's had the "shuffling walk" for a couple of years now. But the falls are happening more and more because of his low blood pressure - it causes dizziness and light-headedness which causes him to go off balance and fall & going to the bathroom anywhere in the house is definitely from the dementia. He does end up in the bathroom many times, but sometimes he says he needs to go, so I help get him up and he starts going in any direction but the bathroom. He thinks he's there, but he's not. It's always a constant getting him to use the walker, I think I use it more running after him to get him to use it than he actually uses it. LOL
I don't think it's a matter of him remembering to use it as the will not to have to or want to use it. I actually believe, after all these years, he is in some kind of denial about his illnesses and truly believes he can still do things the way he used to.
Not an easy task.
Thanks for the suggestions.
So you are right about getting rid of the carpet and installing tile. I think IKEA has cork and they do have bamboo flooring, which also is softer and is pretty cheap.
About the walker, my mom used a 4 wheeled walker (a Hugo) while she was in IL and the first few months of this year when she went to NH/LTC. She is now at the point that she can't use it as it get's away from her and is too mobile. She has 4 footed canes (aka a quad cane) and a 2 wheeled walker (the kind that get's tennis balls). The quad is great as it is lower and when she gets out of bed it is at her level and then she can go from that to the walker which stands higher. She is still ambulatory so the front wheels work for her.
Also she now wears socks with grippy bottoms. I got her GripX. You can find these at stores that carry Pilates stuff. These are super great, you'll end up getting a pair for yourself! They are from Australia about $ 15 pr but really do grip. For shoes, only boat sole flats.
Another thing that might work are Vibram 5 fingers shoes - I've never seen them on elders but they are also super grippy. People use them for sailing as they allow the foot to really grip especially when trapezing. They are somewhat expensive but I bet Academy Sporting Good will have knock off's of them coming out if not already as these are some kinda popular with the young. Another "shoe" that grips are surf moc's or sand shoes - those mesh top ones with plastic base.
They are sold @ WalMart every summer and super cheap.
Another thing we did was put a red band on her left wrist (like those yellow LiveStrong ones) & then I put red nail polish on her walker on the left side & on her canes. This to remind her to grab from the left and use her left first. Red on Red.
Good luck!
GemG - hadn't thought about cork flooring. I'll check it out.
He is supposed to use his walker ALL THE TIME. His mind works differently than his body. His mind tells him to just get up and go, but when he does, his body says "hey, not so fast, where are you going?" LOL He's got a stubborn spirit that's for sure.
His meals & snacks are on schedule because of his meds, but bathroom breaks are random. No rhyme or reason.
InService... that's what this place is about... thoughts, ideas, suggestions. Brainstorming is great when others get involved. My brain is stressed and over-exhausted, so not too much brainstorming coming out of me. Thanks