This is how to watch the person with Alzheimer’s so you can see the early symptoms of UTI. The hardest part can be getting them to let you watch them. It may not be easy, especially if they don’t want you to and won’t cooperate. You may need to take extraordinary measures to accomplish this. You need to watch because you want to catch a UTI early, and the earlier, the better.
Watching them may be your only option to detect a urinary tract infection quickly. Hopefully, before it gets to the point, they can’t pee at all. Sometimes a Urinary Tract Infection can escalate rapidly. You watch them pee and have no symptoms. Then a few hours later, they can’t pee at all, showing all the signs. Usually, you can see subtle indications that a UTI is just beginning.
Alzheimer’s eventually shuts down the ability to communicate, and they can’t find the words they want. When they can’t tell you there is a problem, you need to watch. They slowly lose the ability to talk and answer questions. A person with Alzheimer’s may answer you, but they may choose to give you the answer they think you want. Not the honest answer.
They may not understand what your asking but say they do. If you ask the person you care for something important, try to get more than a one-word answer. Try asking them what you are were asking. Ask them to repeat the question you just asked. Doing his will expose whether they understand or say they do. Somehow they are very good at giving short responses that seem appropriate to the question. Try to ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer.
When an Alzheimer’s patient forgets the right words to use, they will make up their own. They may substitute a couple of words in a sentence with repeated sounds. Everything they say might be sounds that make no sense to you. They may not feel the pain all the time or don’t know what it is, where it is, or be able to show you. The only thing left is a diagnosis by observation.
Here are some tips to help you watch the person with Alzheimer’s for signs of a UTI. Try to watch them without them knowing it. If a person with Alzheimer’s thinks you are watching to catch them doing something, they will alter their behavior.
The person may be uncomfortable with you in the bathroom while they are peeing. Act as if you’re there for something other than watching them. Straighten the towels or act like your cleaning the sink or washing your hands. Act like this is a regular occurrence.
If they look at you like, what are you in here when I’m trying to pee? Say something along the lines of – Does me being here bother you? Why does it bother you? You were in here with me the last time I had to pee. Or why are you upset? I bathed you earlier, and you had all your clothes off, and I washed you. You liked that. Do you remember when I bathed you?
The trick isn’t what you say. It’s how you say it. They may not understand what you say. What’s important is the tone of your voice, your facial expressions, and your body language. Try to project a happy, Kind, friendly image. People with Alzheimer’s rely heavily on these to interpret what is happening and how they should react.
If all else fails – spy on them.
If they insist on being in the bathroom alone and lock the door you have two options. Change the doorknobs to a set without a lock button or take off the door. Also, most knobs have a small hole in the center. You can stick something in there, and the lock will release.
If you need to pop a lock like this, ensure you get something that works before you need it. You can use a piece of coat hanger wire or cut the tip off a Q-tip, and that should fit. These are easy to lose, so have more than one handy.
If you decide to remove the door until you get a new doorknob set or take the door off permanently. Wait until they are done and leave the bathroom. The next time they use the bathroom, they won’t even notice it’s missing. If they do, say it had to be sent out to be fixed.
When removing the door, you can usually take the hinge pins out. They may be loose enough to pull up and out. I not you may need to put a screwdriver under the head of the pin and tap the handle of the screw diver with a hammer. Removing the pin is quick when you need the door off fast but unscrew the hinge from the door frame if the door needs to stay off.
If it does come down to removing the door. I recommend unscrewing the hinge from the door frame. If you only remove the hinge pin, half of the hinge still sticks out from the frame. If they would fall and hit that part of the hinge, it could cause a serious injury.
You can replace the door with a curtain. That will give some privacy if needed. Besides watching to see what’s happening, there’s another good reason to do this. If the door opens into the bathroom and the person you care for falls, they may block the door from opening. If they are on the floor and injured, the last thing you want is to push the door against them to get in. They shouldn’t be in the bathroom alone, but things happen.
You may think the person with Alzheimer’s disease has trouble getting around. Or think they can’t move fast by watching how they usually move through the house. Don’t underestimate the speed some older people can move. They will astound you. Take my word on it, or you’ll be saying – I can’t believe how fast they moved.
When you’re the caregiver, you need to imagine the worst that could happen and take precautions. If you don’t, the worse will happen.
You need to take charge and be the boss and at the same time make them feel like it’s what they want to do. They have very little control over anything, and they try to hold on to any control they think they have. Even if, in reality, they don’t.
Oh, and by the way, you as the caretaker have very little control over what happens, so accept it. Learn to go with the flow. You can’t depend on anything working out to a schedule. When you are a caretaker dealing with Alzheimer’s, you need to live in the moment just as they do.
I thought I could do everything by a schedule when I first started. It’s time to do this. It’s time to do that. You end up exhausted trying to get the person with Alzheimer’s to cooperate, and you’re racing the clock. It’s like fighting a battle on two flanks. Once I became flexible, gave up letting the clock rule, stopped trying to control the uncontrollable, it became easier. Relax.