Mom needing to be adjusted in bed every 10 minutes all night long. Anyone have experience with this?

We did a few things that helped my Mom quite a bit. Like your Mom, she had chronic pain issues that interfered greatly with her comfort and her sleep. We got her an alternating pressure pad for her bed. Essentially, it inflated and deflated bubbles on the pad. Mom was able to position herself so that sore spots were in between the bubbles so it took the pressure off. She also found the rhythm of the inflation/deflation cycle soothing. We also got her a bed rail. Its support frame went under her mattress. She was able to use the bed rail to pull herself up. It also helped to keep her in bed, without fear of falling. Both items are available on Amazon. These things enabled her to stay in her own bed for a while longer. We did have to get her a hospital bed about 2 months before she passed. As a side note - if your Mom isn’t on hospice, you might consider getting her evaluated for it. It can be a great help.

It might help to put rail on bed so legs can't fall off. If she can't pull herself up, she's not able to get up and out of bed without help. A diaper or pull-up might help eliminate that assistance too often in the night.

Try pillows to support leg that is not on mattress. Sometimes one between knees helps. Pillows also help to maintain side positioning.

She will never get 10 minute interval help in a NH, so if you have funds to pay for overnight care, by all means pay for it. You need sleep for the daytime hours.

You can adjust if you have hospital bed. Put leg parts up, also put pillows on sides turn her you can hire someone but will they stay awake to adjust every 10 min! I doubt it! Hugs 🤗

A rotator cuff injury is very painful. If that shoulder is not exercised daily she will get what is called a frozen shoulder and will lose complete use of that arm. Not even extra strength tylenol will touch that pain.

Mhillwt: Since neither one of you is getting restorative sleep, perhaps your mother needs a new bed or your mother opts for managed care facility living.

You need to wave the white flag and have your mom placed in a SNF, you cannot keep this up.

Be her advocate and make certain that she is not over-medicated for this issue, but meds will be required. to keep her from falling out of bed and for sleep. Maybe pain meds are in order.

I've had 2 extensive repair surgeries on my left shoulder and the only bed in which I can sleep on that side is my adjustable air bed. Otherwise, while my shoulder was painful, I had to sleep on my right side with a large pillow propping my left arm to avoid the pain of weight pulling on my shoulder.

Please start looking at having your mom placed, for both of your sakes.

Is your mom living at home or in a nursing home?

Yes, an aide will help and may have suggestions about how to keep her comfortable. If mom isn't in hospice, it's time for you to call them for a consultation.

We hired round the clock care for my Mom; who has CHF, AFIB, neuropathy, had broken ribs, etc. Yes, they will adjust her, that is what they are hired for and for us they had to be sure that Mom's oxygen was in her nose. Be sure to create a chart, date, time, etc. Caregivers need this to be kept aware of what they need to be doing and we need to be sure they are doing what is requested. We thought of a camera, but haven't gone that route yet. We ended up moving Mom to the reclining sofa and this helped with keeping her feet up. Seemed no matter what we tried for the hospital bed didn't keep her feet up.
Best wishes, this is not easy feet!! Take care of yourself too!

My Mom needs to be adjusted a lot. I am with her most days and I adjust her so the aides don't have to but when I am not there or we have to pull her up it is a two person assist.

i bought my Mom a large and small wedge pillow to sit up in bed and we put a pillow under her legs so her feet dangle off as we try to prevent sores on her ankles.

The company we got the wedge from is called Cuddledown.

try elevating her legs slightly and see if that helps keep her from riding down. My mom has a hospital bed and we put the foot of the bed up a little as well.

If Mom can afford and Aide try it out. You must be exhausted and yes, they will adjust her.

dear OP,

there are all sorts of huge pillows that take the shape of the body; comfy, you press into it, like a foamy cushion.

https://www.etac.com/products/patient-handling/campaigns/immedia-leanonme/

can be soft and nice; and act as a barrier against her legs dangling off the bed. (i'm guessing you've already tried a bed rail).

Can you arrange some sort of barrier at the edge of the bad so her feet don't dangle off so quickly? Attention every ten minutes is unreasonable even for an aide and means your mother must not be sleeping much!

My mom had both rotator cuff issues and CHF. She had a hospital bed provided by Medicare. She didn’t have to be on hospice to have the bed. A rehab doctor ordered it. She did have home health which was very helpful. She slept with the head of the bed raised and the knees adjusted if I remember correctly. Since she was on Lasix she was up four times a night on her own. Due to her rotator cuff she had to have OT for the last several years of her life in order to have the use of her right arm. Ask her doctor to order home health and a hospital bed. Ask home health to have her evaluated for therapy. I had taken my mom to an Orthopedic surgeon who x-rayed her shoulder and then told me he could do nothing for her beyond the therapy.
My mother did not like her mattress on her hospital bed and we went through several toppers and the air filled ones before she decided to accept one. She used small support pillows but amazingly managed on her own. She liked the height of the bed and that she could get in and out of it with the side rails for support. She did use a lift chair during the day and sometimes napped in it but went to her bed each night. I wonder if your mom is sleeping during the day and not sleeping that well at night? I was always amazed that my mom would get up to use her bedside commode so often and go right back to sleep. Each morning after using the commode she would weigh herself and jot down the weight. Then make her way to the kitchen to have her breakfast. I don’t know how she did it. Amazing to me when I look back on it.

This is just a thought, but have you tried letting her sleep in a lift chair/recliner? I've had rotator cuff surgeries on both arms and after both I found it more comfortable to sleep in our lift chair/recliner for a while as I am a side sleeper. And I only put the back of the chair back just a little, so I was still basically sitting up when I slept.
That would be a whole lot cheaper than having to hire someone to come in to move her, and realistically, how much sleep would she get when someone is moving her every 10 minutes?
Also as has been suggested, it may be time to bring hospice on board.

There are hospital beds with mattresses that move. The mattress has "tubes" that are air filled and the air constantly moves and this keeps pressure from being in one place for very long.
It is a gentle movement so it should cause no pain as she would not be physically moves by someone the mattress would move.
Is she on Hospice? Hospice will provide a bed like this.

It’s actually happening even when they aren’t dangling off….ithink it’s a mental thing .. she wants to sleep but isn’t comfortable in bed anymore but wants to stay in bed but with being repositioned every minute since sge can’t feel comfortable

Not sure about how an aide would work but I wonder if a setting her up on her side with a wedge pillow behind her back for a little support and a thin pillow between her legs/knees might be more comfy and help prevent sliding off the bed. This is how we position my disabled (paralyzed) father onto his side during the night.

You might look up “positioning a patient on side” on YouTube to see if what I’m describing might work for your mom. Here is a video I watched produced by hospice RNs with the title “Positioning for Comfort to Lie on the Side” that could be helpful:

https://youtu.be/6M5_eTPUWpo