Poor Mom! Eye infection and Constipation!

Mom has had a rough few days. It is really strange, but when she was in the hospital, we noticed that she would look at us closing one of her eyes. We thought maybe it was the result of a stroke but that was ruled out. Now, 4 weeks later, she has begun to have a major infection in that eye. We kept being told by the nurses that maybe she scratched it and to lay washcloths with warm or cold water over it. It kept getting worse. Finally a nurse came in last night and when she called the doctor, she thought it might be shingles. It sure does not look like shingles to me and I told her that. They said shingles can look different on different parts of the body. I finally sent a picture out to the nurse and asked her to send it to the doctor so she could see how bad it is. Her whole face is swollen with it. It is so hard because we can't take mom into the office as weak as she is so we are having to rely on the nurses to relay the messages to the doctor. I hope the picture helps them realize how bad it looks. The doctor did put her on an antibiotic for shingles so I hope that helps. I feel so sorry for mom. I know it has to hurt so bad!

Another issue mom is having is that she has lost the ability to know what to do if you feel like you need to have a bowel movement. She has the cramping and pain but cannot push. When I tell her to push, sometimes she will push her hands into her lap...but just does not know what I mean by "push". It is so hard to see her so uncomfortable. Last night, she started crying and said "It is still in there". She is so relieved every day when she finally has a BM. From what I have read, there is a fine line that you have to balance here. If you give them too much of a laxative, they may lose control and need to be in a Depends. But,on the other hand, you don't want the opposite problem because they need to stay regular. I hope that we can balance things out and figure out this delima too. Sorry if you the this is TMI but it is a big part of our life right now! I never realized that this could be an issue with an alzheimer patient. She will say, "Aren't you going to do something?" or "Just let me go to bed." Today she yelled,"Get me up from here, now!!" It is so frustrating for her!