Dear Denise,
I believe divine guidance led me to your website. I plan to register for the course. My frustration is that I cannot get my mother on a schedule in order to take her medications.
She wants to sleep until noon and then be awake all night. She is suffering from post herpetic neuralgia since march and has COPD.
Basically she is healthy except for these things, no B/P problems, diabetes, etc. I work and I have asked her to try and respect our schedule.
I would like for her to be up and have breakfast and take her meds before I leave for work at 8 am. She sleeps until 10 or 11 am then takes her meds. Then at noon she takes the noon meds which I think is too close together and then she might eat just a piece of toast until I get home around 1 pm as I only work half a day. When I ask her to not sleep so late she says ok but unless I persist by continuously waking her she still sleeps.
Any suggestions?
Hi,
I can understand how frustrating this is. You’re trying to juggle two schedules and hitting too many bumps in the road along the way.
A few suggestions that I hope will help:
1. Talk to your mom about her difficulty sleeping at night. Is something keeping her up at night? Is she worrying at night? Drinking fluids too late at night and needing to use the bathroom? Then, ask how you can help her get a good night’s sleep.
2. Would she consider getting up to have breakfast with you and then taking a mid-morning nap?
3. Think about adding more exercise (with her doctor’s okay) and activities into your schedules so that she’s tired at night. Would she enjoy going to a senior center during the day? Or, the local library for a few hours? Or, taking on some chores around the house (such menu planning, making the grocery list, folding laundry, etc.)? Ask for her input on activities. She may feel better getting out of bed if she feels she has a reason and purpose to the day.
4. You also might want to schedule an appointment with her doctor, just to make sure everything is okay. Do you think she may be depressed? You can talk to her doctor about options if this is a concern for you.
5. Ask the pharmacist for help. Explain that your mom likes to sleep late; can the medication schedule be modified? Should you be worried if she takes her morning and noon-time medications back-to-back?
Let me know what happens!
