My mother lets out a yell, like she's dying and I go running in and she's spilled some water on herself. Or drooled a little in her sleep. I finally got her to stop wanting to change her PJs 2 times a night for a couple drops of water. We put kleenex between it and the skin now. Of course, if it's alot we change clothes. I know she gets cold from it, but OMG. She scares me grey sometimes with this nonsense.
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She shrieks if she spills a drop on herself when drinking. We use a straw to reduce this, but she often tips the cup too far and a drop will squeak past the lid by the straw.
I always assumed it was because it was cold, but from her reaction, you would think she was the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz! I’m melting...
Her other issue is getting water on her face when showering. As is common with a lot of dementia patients, she can’t tilt her head back easily. So when I am getting her hair wet and rinsing it after shampooing, she won’t breathe. She acts like I am rinsing her with acid. She won’t move on until we have DRIED her face. Even then she keeps repeating, “Oh, this is horrible.”
I don’t have an answer for how to help. Everything I’ve tried has helped, a little (like the straw) but I haven’t found a great solution for the overall issue.
I have definitely noticed that she reacts overly dramatically when there is an bump or something. This was never in her character prior to dementia. About 20 years ago, she had a SEVERE burn to her arm from hot oil when we were at my grandmother’s house. (She still has a scar as big a half dollar!). She acted as if it was a tiny paper cut or something and excused herself from the kitchen to go and run it under water and quickly hide the injury.
IT HAD TO BE EXCRUCIATING ! But she returned to the kitchen and helped finish the dishes! No one there was ever he wiser.
Watching our loved ones change before our eyes into people we would never recognize is torture.
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