She stays in bed all day, but will get up and ride her chair downstairs and eat breakfast, read the paper, watches TV. She smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, but will not take a bath or shower, and will not let anyone else bathe her. She will put on clean gowns, and wears Depends. Occasionally she has incontinence incidences. HELP!!!! She has all her faculties...no demetia. Had a stroke 2 years ago and is hypertensive and diabetic.
We have tried heating the bathroom. We have a chair in the shower. Nothing.
Your mother may not have dementia, but she apparently has some kind of impairment in her reasoning, at least on this topic! With the heat and the chair you are obviously trying to overcome her fears but you must not have hit the right hot button yet! What does she say when you discuss this with her?