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Is Low Diastolic Blood Pressure common with Stage 3 or 4 CKD?
Kidney & Bladder | Last Active: Nov 10 10:13am | Replies (160)Comment receiving replies
Bill was diagnosed years ago for an enlarged prostate. For years he used a pee bottle at night rather then getting up. Last few months, with worsening dementia, he either missed or worse would get up, fall, and spill pee all over the floor. Last time he also cut his head so blood was added to the mix. Last two times had to call 911 as Robin and I could not get him up.
After the last time I bought a Raizer M, which helps someone get off the floor. Fortunately I haven't had to use it although I did test it out on Robin (worked really well and she was a good Guinea pig. We laughed a lot as well as I cranked her up.
Mayo is setting up all sorts of appointments for him. They also changed some of his medications and after about a month seem to be kicking in and last few days have been wonderful with no anger issues! Can only pray it continues. He is re-watching his beloved James Bond movies - either thinks they are new or he hasn't seen them for a long time (like the day before). I don't correct him. He is happy with them. Which is what counts.
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I'm glad to hear you and Bill are getting useful help, and am happy for you that Mayo is able to provide so much help, presumably as you must near the AZ branch.
I too rely on the bedside commode method so I have an easy time falling back asleep when the nocturia awakens me (I comfort my sense of embarrassment by recalling the centuries/millennia during which EVERYONE relied on chamber pots!). I occasionally think with horror about the days during which household staff actually tossed the "slops" out the window, using only the inadequate warning of "Gardee Loo" - Beware the "water". How unspeakably awful to have it land on you! Even stepping in the unsanitary residue is a dreadful thought.
But back to the blessed present of indoor plumbing, I am grateful to only have to rely on my improvised chamber pot as your hubby does. I dread the future when advancing age makes it more "hit and miss" for me - especially if (when?) I develop more severe visual and cognitive impairments. (My 99 year old mother is blind and has Alzheimer's and has had a number of serious falls, almost all trying to "transfer" alone to get to her private bathroom in Assisted Living. (Family is trying to avoid her unaffordable move to a nursing facility.) I'm afraid I've inherited both genetic predispositions..
As for my present improvised solution to the midnight pit stops, I rely on a small bedside touch light which insures I can see, but not so bright as to startle me wide awake. When I get up in the morning, I carry a plastic paint pail to empty, what's accumulated - so far, I've been fortunate not to have spilled it.
However, I have fallen midnight once so far - never knew urine was so slippery. 🙁 Your husband is fortunate to have such a loving, devoted wife and I congratulate you.
Aging is certainly an assault on ones dignity!
I remember when my mother first moved to Florida where she had better medical care and help from a sib. She was full of compensatory "jokes" circulating among her new friends (to cope with their fears) , all beginning "What's good about Alzheimer's"?
A few: "you can wrap your own Christmas presents" "you can hide your own Easter eggs", "you can reread your favorite murder mysteries", etc. Your husband is finding joy in watching over and over his James Bonds movies!
Bless you for taking pleasure in his ways of relieving the stresses of his cognitive decline. Facing all this alone makes aging all the harder. I'm very isolated, my two sons living far away. I worry about your coping alone with his occasional aggression (I have heard it's a common challenge for caregivers of AD sufferers) I hope you have help and respite.