Bed sores

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lisaohgee

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My mother has a bedsore near her tailbone, because she insists on being propped up on the couch and sitting instead of being in a hospital bed on her side at times during the day.

She is skin and bones. She weighs 70 pounds maybe. The bedsore is getting worse because all that can be done is for her to get off of it and she won't.

I read that bedsores can lead to sepsis. Does anyone have any info or knowledge of bed sores?
 
Bedsores can lead to sepsis and death. It the good old days of poor nursing care, they were very common in bedridden patients an caused many deaths. Christopher reeve ( superman) died from sepsis from a bedsore that he had been fighting with. ( hopefully I remembered that correctly).

It's very important she gets off her back, but if she is refusing, there is not much you can do. Could you get her doctor to talk with her. Maybe she will respect what he says. If it keeps enlarging she will end up in hospital, tell her that!
 
She won't listen to anyone, but I will try the hospital scare tactic.
 
you can try a doughtnut pillow but it really wont help much. Turning is the only way. good luck mp
 
JoellC used to swear by putting white sugar on bedsores to dry them up. Read the links at this page bottom as well.

AL
 
Isn't your Hospice on top of this? There are some patches that can be used to help, duoderm is one that comes to mind. Can they order her a roho or gel cushion to sit on? You're right about positioning though.
 
we used the roho quatro on the couch. he was close to getting a sore and this worked great. He wondered way we hadn't done it earlier. You may also be able to take two pillows and leave a little space between them to remove her weight from the tail bone area. Also is the bed in the same room as the couch? she may not want to be away from the action of daily life.
Penny
 
They are getting her the donut shaped pillow. The bed is in the same room as the couch. However, she is so thin the patches don't adhere well to her skin.
 
We had to use a skin prep to help the duoderm adhere to my Mom's skin. The thinnest patches worked best. We also used a gel cushion in her recliner and an alternating pressure overlay on her bed. good luck, I hope the doughnut pillow helps.
 
you can also use small pillows or towels. Have them on one side of her bottom, or lower back. It helps to redistribute pressure.
alternate sides often.
 
My pals sat on a sofa for 1 yr. resisting a hospital bed. Sitting caused blood clots that led to leg swelling and later to pulmonary embolism. She is endangering her health sitting like that. She needs to be in a bed where she can be turned several times a day. The embolism that I mentioned led to a week in intensive care, two weeks in hospital, and a month of rehab at another facility. I'm sure she doesn't want that!
 
After a medical professional attends to this sore, see if your mother will compromise. My husband had a recliner that he sat in during the day. The positive thing about this is that his position could be changes frequently and easily (at least once an hour). We did this for the 16 months my husband was immobile. He also had a low flow pulsating air mattress that changes the pressure points every two minutes. The combination of these two things kept him from getting any bedsores. I checked his skin daily. If a pink spot popped up, I used an ointment somewhat like vaseline petroleum jelly that kept the area moisture free and made sure there was padding under that area that day.

Good luck, my thoughts are with you.
 
There is a cloth with silver threads that runs through it. It healed a sore that I had at the bend of my leg. The Nurse brought it out to me. You might ask the nurse for some.
 
Lisa's mother died on February 24th.
 
There are several things to do--but the first is to get it evaluated by a nurse and/or doctor.
Aly is exactly right. Sepsis is deadly, and common in bedsores.

It should be kept as sterile as possible. THere is a dressing called opsite that keeps things from getting inside the wound...but if she won't stay off the area, there needs to be a lot of padding in the areas affected. The donut is a good suggestion.

Does she have hospice? The nurse can do dressings and show you how to do them properly. They can also be very painful--I speak from first-hand experience.
 
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