I am writing this in real time. My memory is now failing me more than ever. I just got back from the drug store with the item I went to get yesterday evening.
The process of getting memory care to function again at Cedarhurst in Columbia is having a marked effect on Margaret. Several discussions in the past 2 days led us to an experiment last night.
I have questioned how Margaret goes to sleep for months. I even took a video for the doctor to review: "Just dreaming."
A few days ago, in response to the Executive Director's question, "How are you doing", Margaret replied, "My back hurts." And that was that, except for the surprise of her speaking.
Her back is stressed by the wheelchair, the daybed, and being left in one position for over two hours.
How do you know if she is in pain? One observation was, if she stops crossing her ankles at night so tight you cannot pull them apart.
[Two caregivers, she is not familiar with, came in to take her to lunch 12:03. How that went needs to be another post.]
So, she was given a pain pill early enough to have effect before she was put to bed. Five minutes later the usual facial moves occurred. Another 10 minutes and they stopped!
[2:01 pm after our weekly Sunday visit with my youngest brother and Margaret's youngest sister in Indiana.]
I tried to lift her top leg, "Ouch". I tried about 5 minutes later with success. A few minutes later the ankles were crossed again.
This morning I again uncrossed her ankles. They remained uncrossed until I left for breakfast, cleaned the caterpillar rearing boxes, and put magic tape handles on the new monarch crystalids.
"Dr. Hart, Margaret is still in bed at 11:30. She does not want to get up. I informed her of our pain management experiment.
When Margaret woke up, she had bright eyes and a soft smile. She was ready for her morning kiss.
If two pain pills made this difference over night, then she must be in pain otherwise. We will repeat this again tonight. We must then find the source of the pain rather than continue with pain pills.
Is crossing the ankles a body language sign of pain? Is it related to holding the arms very tightly to the body? When this position is relaxed by massaging the thumb, Margaret immediately continues feeding herself with her left hand as if nothing had happened.
I will continue to search with, "Why do alzheimer's patients cross their ankles (legs) at night? I have yet to find such an article. Everyone knows that crossing legs is bad. Setting on a plane over two hours is horrible but not in poorly performed memory care.
I need confirmation that pain is shown by crossing ankles at night; a practice by the patient to relieve pain in the back.
