Good morning, @pbmom I'm Scott and I was my wife's caregiver for over 14 years. I was also a caregiver for my MIL, who had dementia and who would get very agitated at the use of the word dementia. I totally understand how frightening this must be to someone with the disease, so in our case, we simply stopped using the word. Likewise, my wife hated to be reminded of her disease, so I did the same with her. I also quickly learned if what my wife was disagreeing with me about was not a truly critical issue, I'd just let any erroneous thinking alone. For me, it was a decision to pick my battles since otherwise, I could have been arguing about something almost every day.

With my wife, I took to explaining that each pill was meant to "help her feel better" or address some specific, smaller symptom that was bothering her at the time. Also, since all her doctors shared information, I began to say all her meds were prescribed by her one, favorite doctor, which helped her be more comfortable taking the pills.

I'd also have her take them with her favorite liquid, rather than water. Kind of made taking the pills a kind of treat in that way. For a time we also used @janet7 suggestion of putting it in apple sauce and/or pudding. I also recall her doctor agreed we could crush a certain pill and mix it into food. Eventually, we switched to liquid forms of all of her meds, but that was far down the road.

Caregiving is certainly a roller coaster of emotions and demands, so frustration is a natural component for all of us caregivers, I believe!

If I may ask, how long have you been caregiving for your sister?

Strength, Courage, & Peace

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