Dad has ALS and dementia

[mimi27]

My dad has als and I am now his caregiver as he no longer qualifies for the assisted living facility he was in. He has recently begun showing signs of dementia and spends all night trying to get out of bed. He is currently in the hospital due to a fall because of a fall from his bed and has to have a sitter 24 hours a day. Any idea how I can keep him in bed? Not only am I desperate to keep him out of a nursing home, the ones close by say the he requires more care than they offer. He has almost no mobility in his legs and requires a patient lift to transfer him but some how manages to get up. He actually fell out of the bed in the hospital. No one gets any sleep (including him) because I cannot get him out of the floor alone and therefore have to wake up my husband who is large enough to pick him up. We recently purchased a queen size electric bed to which we added rails so he couldn't roll off thinking if we put him to bed in the center of the bed away from the rails there would be no way he could get up but he fell the first night.

 

[lgelb]

Re: Dad has ALS

Sorry to hear about your dad. Did he fall through the rails? You can buy or make bumpers to fill the gaps.
If he went over them, there are "safety beds" that have solid walls, kind of like a configurable open box, as well.

 

[mimi27]

Re: Dad has ALS

I am not actually sure so we have addressed that with bumpers because he is very small and that is entirely possible. However, the last few nights before he fell he was buzzing me every 1/2 hour or so and saying that he was looking for his shoes so he could leave and last night they called from the hospital and said he was actively trying to get out of the bed and fell and that along with a few other things makes me believe he is "getting" dementia.

 

[lgelb]

Re: Dad has ALS

Has he been evaluated for dehydration, malnutrition, infection, and his drug regimen, if any, checked? All of these can cause/worsen the symptoms you describe, which would be a very sudden onset of FTD if that were the cause, if he was previously cognitively sound. It is not at all unusual for people in assisted living or skilled nursing to not be themselves on discharge from hospital, and they need care to get back to baseline. And was a head CT done after the initial fall?

 

[soonerwife]

Re: Dad has ALS

So sorry to hear about your dad. We are here for you.

 

[starente15]

Re: Dad has ALS

So sorry you're going through this. What we had to do with my dad was tie a bell to the bed sheet so we would know if he was attempting to get up. It worked well and he never had a fall.