Elderly patients, if placed on an incline would tend to slide down on the bed. This is due to gravity, muscle weakness that causes them unable to support themselves in that position and feeling uncomfortable when placed in that position. While we can tell and advice someone to be conscious and not to slide down, [...]
In Thailand, a wealth of information is available on tube feeding. The video below, demonstrated by a nurse from Saraburi hospital on the ingredients, preparation, storage and precautions needed. Do note that the ingredients are all dietary approved by dietican and the hospital. It is similar to what the dietician from our hospital briefed us. [...]
I am grateful that we are in Thailand and sought medical care from doctors here. When my mom developed difficulty swallowing due to late stage Alzheimer’s, all the doctors here recommended nose tube intubation (nasogastric tube). My mom survived and recovered her energy from nose tube feeding. Even my family and her friends back in [...]
About 65 percent of those with Alzheimer’s or dementia would develop dysphagia, ie difficultity in swallowing. The most noticable symptoms is the person who start choking and coughing especially when taking fluids like water. But not so bad if it is semi fluids or purees. If you notice your loved one with dementia refusing to [...]
In the 2 videos below, you can find very useful tips related to Nasogastric or Nose Tube Feeding published by 2 well known hospitals in Singapore: Below is by Tan Tock Seng hospital: https://youtu.be/r18wS2fAFas Below is published by Singapore General Hospital: https://youtu.be/93oAYQ3M2dA The summary of the tips as well as what I do is: [...]
When you attempt to measure yours or your loved one’s blood pressure and your home machine indicates as ‘Error’, you need to get the person to the hospital asap for checking. Below is a video that shows what I meant. In the first part, it shows how the blood pressure machine in our home read [...]
In this article, I wish to talk about why caregivers gain weight in the course of caregiving. I feel this issue needs to be addressed and speak about because often this is overlooked. And being a caregiver, it is important to remain healthy physically and emotionally before one is able to care for someone’s under [...]
The nasogastric tube or nose tube is secured to the patient via a tape. In Alzheimer or dementia folks, we face the huge challenge as they would attempt to pull the tube out in all ways possible. They wanna pull the tube? Of course you bet they would. No worries, doctors adviced to have their [...]
I know of a few couples with an autistic or down syndrome kid. Someone told me that a young couple was having a very hard time with their second son who is autistic. The son misbehaves and is very difficult to manage at times. What I told him was regardless of whether we are caring [...]
This post is written from personal experience as my mom has been officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s- mid stage. Usually your geriatrician or neurologist would recommend starting the patient on medication in hope of delaying the deterioration of brain function due to Alzheimer’s. Update July 2021: There have been a lot of changes after this article [...]
