My wife has late-stage Alzheimer’s. It started as posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) but has progressed rapidly. Her vision is very poor. I have a live-in caregiver, but I am investigating memory care facilities since it has become increasingly difficult for even the two of us to care for my wife. Just in the past few days, she has developed diarrhea - to the point that it has lasted more than a few days and doesn't subside no matter what I try. Recently, the neurologist put her on Zoloft; we are now on the max dosage prescribed by the doctor. I can't tell if the diarrhea is part of the disease, caused by the Zoloft, or something else. From anyone that has experienced this before; what are your suggestions? Either on the cause or anything I can do to help with the issue. Finally, her interest in eating has significantly decreased in the past week. Thanks
So, the probiotic solved the D problem we occasionally had to go to the ER to get her flushed out. Maybe I should have done the probiotic on alternate days.
The probiotic we used was Walgreens Super Probiotic.
I meant to comment on your post when I saw it initially, msging now in case you'll see it.
My Mom, 88, is in a MC unit, has chronic irritable bowel disease and constant loose stools. If you haven't yet found a remedy to help your wife, maybe this will help. Mom is also on Zoloft, 175 mgs daily and has has IBS for decades.
Do your research online to see if Zoloft is the cause; drugs can have rare side effects and her Drs may deny any issue. It's down to you to investigate.
As a retired RN, I initiated for Mom what we did for patients with loose stools: giving a bulking agent like psyllium husk or even Metamucil. Must be taken with lots of fluids to prevent constipation.
And (not part of medical care) start her on high grade probiotics to restore and rebalance her gut flora. Use any brand for now and order some Mega Spore Probiotics (amazon, etc). These are spore based and superior in all ways to any other brand I've found. (I recovered from Lyme with over 2 yrs of antibiotics and used this brand to repair my gut microbiome.) The Megaspore have to be started slow because they cause die-off of of harmful gut bacteria; give at 1 cap 3xs weekly for starts per the package directions.
I wish you well and hope that you don't encounter too much of a wait period once you decide that you can no longer handle these increasing needs and decide to place your wife in a SNF where she'll receive the care she needs by people not having to provide these cares on a 24/7 basis.
Hospice is a godsend, and shouldn't withheld.
Also our first primary didn’t taper her off the Zoloft. Yikes, 100% do not recommend stopping cold turkey. You’ve already put up with issue for this long, please do a reasonable taper, don’t add withdrawal symptoms as well!
When we started her on Cymbalta (duloxetine) later we started at less than the pediatric dose and worked up incredibly slowly. Any GI issues so far have been manageable.
Hope you get some relief soon!
Good catch! Esp if the stools are explosive and have that recognizable horrid odor of C Diff. A very dangerous condition if left untreated and easily diagnosed with a stool spec brought to the lab.
I would contact the doctor ASAP to back the dose down to where she was tolerating it without issue.
If you haven't done so, I wonder if a consult with hospice in order? Late stage dementia and little interest in eating could be signs that it's time to consider it.
Have you tried the BRAT diet? https://www.oregonclinic.com/diets-BRAT
Good luck