My mother's platelet count has fallen to extremely low numbers. She is considered a "fall risk" because she has fallen 2 x now. The first fall resulted in a broken wrist last spring. The latest fall was 2 weeks ago and that is when her low platelet was found. She was hospitalized and put on predizone to help grow platelets. Now my problem is that Drs have her on diuretics to counter the fluid retention associated with the predizone and she gets up at night to go to the bathroom. Because of the fall risk I am having to pay for an overnight caregiver in additional to what we pay for her to live in the assisted living home she is in. We want to order a hospital bed with full side rails so as not to allow my mother to get up at night and have her use her depends. Having dementia I can imagine that she will not like being confined to the bed all night and I don't know what else to do. During the day the care giver walks with my mom with her walker everywhere she goes. At night mom forgets to use the walker. Mom is quicker than the care givers can get to her at night when the bed alarm goes off and she is up and on her way to the bathroom. All of this will somewhat be resolved once the steroid regime ends in 10 more days but the fall risks will remain. Anybody have any advice?
This particular home was going to have 5 residents but the owner decided to only have 4 residents. Therefore they there is not an overnight wake staff, and the past few nights have really been hard on the daytime care giver who sleeps there too but not expected to get up with the residents.
The ER dr suggested that last night when she had to go to the ER again because she tumbled out of the recliner as she bent over to take her shoes off. The care giver had just sat mom down in the chair and turned to the closet to get mom's nightgown. She didn't actually hit her head but the Dr. at the hospital last week said any fall is an automatic trip to the ER so off they sent her!