Mom is 99 years old living in memory care. She gets up for breakfast and then goes back to bed. Currently on a regiment of Miralax, fiber supplement, prunes, and encouragement to drink more all which barely break even enough to keep her on a daily routine bowel movement.
Problem is that she no longer knows to how to push. When she was able, she would digitally assist and fully empty. She now needs daily dedicated bathroom assistance and that is not available in her memory care unit. What type of paid care is available to accomplish what the unit is unable to provide or is this the type of care that would be provided by skilled nursing?
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1/4 cup Milk of Magnesia
1/4 cup Prune Juice
1/4 cup orange juice
That was heated to about body temp and he would drink that. Worked in about 15 to 30 minutes.
Lactulose also helped a LOT once I started giving that to him daily there were no more real problems.
Also not sure if it was the position or not but quite often when he was done with his nice warm shower and was in the Hoyer Lift he would often have a BM. (if you think about it the knees were up a bit higher than the hips .. think of the product Squatty Potty..)
Suppositories were an option as were enemas.
Now this medication is used for opioid induced constipation, and I don't know if your mom is on any kind of opioids, but if she is it may be worth asking about, as it's response time is very quick.
I tried everything your mom has tried for my husband, including lactulose, and the Relistor was the only thing that worked for him. Good luck.
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