Old 03-13-2011, 02:08 AM
  #26  
Qbee
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Kentucky
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I can tell you what finally worked for me when I took care of my Dad. He had Leukemia and this was a big issue after Chemo treatments. First, is she taking any kind of "water pill"? If so, talk to the doctor about the timing of thoses. As far as drinking, with my dad, he was on so many meds that his mouth was dry ALL the time. He would have been miserable if he didn't have something to drink by him at all times. He had to have water with him in the car even so you might want to think about that or talk to her maybe. The chuxs work OK but they bunch up if you put them right under them and they move around so here is the system I used. This is with a hospital bed. If you don't have a hospital bed, ask the DR to write an order for one and Medicaid will pay for it. Anyway...here is what we did with dad:

1. Make sure that the skin is protected with a REALLY GOOD skin cream from the DR. This is SO important because if the skin starts breaking down it is very hard to get it healed.
2. If this works, you will still need to make sure that you change her brief (adult diaper) ASAP after it is wet to avoid skin break down.
3. OK...now that I gave my "don't let the skin break down speech" LOL....Make sure that the Depends or whatever brand you are using has extra padding in the back if she lays on her back. The style for men has the padding in the front which doesn't work at night. You may have to play with how you put them on to get them just right.
4. For the chux, which do work but bunch up, put a really large chux down and use duct tape to tape it to the bed. Now, take a top sheet and fold it to where it is big enough to cover the chux AND the duct tape with plenty of room to make sure that if she moves around, the tape wont end up touching her legs.
5. So....you now have a chux with a folded sheet over it. Go to Walmart or somewhere like that and in the section with the mattress pads and stuff there will be these straps that you use to attach sheets down. Use these to attach the sheet covering the chux to the bed so it will stay in place. With a hospital bed, the springs are underneath so I just attached one end of the strap to the sheet and the other end to a spring under the bed to pull it tight. I did about 3 on each side of the sheet.
6. Now, when you go to change her, just ask her to get on her side (if she can't get up) and roll the sheet, chuxs and all right up to her back. Then roll her over the other way, rolling her over the rolled up sheet, etc. and remove it all. Then you put it all back down the same way.
I bet that is all about as clear as mud. If she has insurance or if you know ANYONE who has done any nursing or anything like that, they could show you how to do it all. Also, like I said, all the briefs, chuxs, etc. should be covered on Medicare/Medicaid.
I hope this helps. I took care of my dad for 2 years. It was very hard since he was over 200 pounds but I am so glad I did. He broke his leg (both bones) and had to be placed in a nursing home/rehab from the hospital and never made it home. We lost him in July but I really think he made it as long as he did because he was able to be here with us. Good luck! :D
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