My mother is having more difficulty walking with her walker. Morning after waking up is very hard for her to get her legs moving. She is very unsteady in the bathroom. The walker does not fit in the bathroom door, nor will a wheelchair when/if she has to go into a wheelchair. She is also incontinent and I am wondering how to manage this if she is no longer walking and in a wheelchair.
Maybe a bedside commode might help your mom. If it’s put next to the bed she wouldn’t have to worry about getting to the bathroom in a hurry.
Be prepared that Mom may have to start using adult diapers. But, don’t call them “diapers” to her. Even people with dementia associate the word “diaper” with “baby”, and that’s insulting to them. Call them underwear. You may want to get her accustomed to them now. Bathroom falls are the worst.
It sounds like your mother walks now but you are anticipating a time when she may not be able to. Things will be much easier if she can maintain the strength to transfer herself. Would her doctor order in-home physical therapy for her, to prepare for that? If she could stand for even a few moments that might make dressing and changing her underwear easier, too. But it is what it is, of course. She may not be able to retain that strength even with proper therapy.
Both my husband and my mother used the toilet to the end, but they both also wore disposable underwear "just in case."
Mom also has a commode but never uses it. She is in Depends now, too....that makes a huge difference for when she can't make it to the bathroom, which is more often than not these days.
My mom does have a physical therapist at her day program. PT says her difficulty walking is due to her dementia or prefrontal lobe dying. PT is still continuing to work with her legs. PT gave me a bedside commode for my mom, however, I am keeping it in the bathroom because when she gets up at night to go somehow there is always urine underneath the commode as well as in the commode. We just carpeted her room! We should have put down a different flooring.
I have ordered a video camera to see what she does at night. Somehow she can get up and go, as well as move her clothing around her room at night.
When I wake her up in the morning, she can barely walk. I have to help her walk in the morning and in the evening. Some days her right leg gets stuck. I find her telling herself how to walk.
However in the middle of the night she is able to get up and go to the bathroom and makes a mess.
She is wearing adult diapers at night. Finally she doesn't fight about it. Going to Respite helped her accept the adult diapers. I tell her she doesn't have to worry if she doesn't make it to the bathroom because of the diapers, but she doesn't understand. I put a waterproof pad under her sheets and she got very mad and pulled it out. I put the waterproof pad because her adult diaper is soaked when I find it in the morning.
I am afraid she is going to fall in the middle of the night in the bathroom. She never calls for help. I can only hear her on the monitor when she coughs.
Hopefully the video will help me understand what/how she is doing whatever it is she is doing. Dementia is so strange!