Marcia Speakman
New member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2005
- Messages
- 7
We just found out in July that my Mother has ALS. It started with her speech and swallowing and then she started having trouble with her right foot dropping. She now has a feeding tube because it was too hard for her to eat and take her meds. She is 77 and lives with my husband and I and I am her sole caregiver. She recently fell in the bathroom and cracked 4 ribs and battles nausea. She doesn't sleep well so neither do I and she wakes up with a lot of pain in her legs and neck. I think a lot of the issues with the neck is she sleeps propped up on pillows and her head ends up hanging down. I've tried to talk her into get a hospital bed but she just doesn't want to. (I think it has a lot to do with me having space to lay beside her when she can't get to sleep or feels really bad.) She recently started taking Zolof so I am hoping the nausea will get better when she gets adjusted to it. She feels so bad it depresses her and she is spending 95% of her time sitting in her bed. Can anyone offer suggestions to help the pain( I thought there would not be a lot of pain with ALS) Does anyone with ALS visit the Chiropractor? Any suggestions for the sleepless nights? She takes Remeron and Zolof at night and Ativan through the day. In the begining of the Ativan and Remeron she would sleep but now wakes every few hours. Her neurologist hasn't even suggested PT but I wonder if anyone has benefited from it. She did some ST and PT before she was actually diagonised but nothing now. Being 77 she is not up for a lot but she just gets weaker and weaker and seems unhappier with each passing day.
Any advice will be appreciated.
Any advice will be appreciated.