Lori, yes it is possible for them to not be able to walk overnight....but, it could also indicate that they have something else going on.....the one thing that comes to mind is a urinary tract infection. You might want to have this checked out.
Yes. My mom went to bed as normal for her one night and the next morning did not know how to stand up or what her legs were to do..It happened overnight..and it was a shock.
Mimi...my husband walked to the table to eat and when he was finished the legs didn't work....! He lived for five more years and never took another step. You are right....what a shock!
An update on my husband. Monday he walked with a slow shuffle. Tuesday he used the walker. Wednesday he walked with great difficulty and by Wed. evening, it took two strong men to get him into bed—he was like a sack of potatoes. He was admitted to the hospital on Thursday. The first thing they check, of course, is a UTI but that was OK. What they found was some pneumonia and he was given antibiotics. Working with the social worker on Friday, it was decided to send him to a nursing home for some physical therapy and then consider the possibility of nursing home placement.
He improved enough on Friday so that by Saturday morning, the doctor thought we would do a few day stay at NH for PT and then home. By Sunday morning he decided that, since I could not stay with him in the NH as I had in the hospital and he was agiteted without me present, and he was so much improved, the best move would be to just send him home and do outpatient PT.
Home Sunday afternoon and walked using the walker. After dinner Sunday evening I left the table for several minutes. He took the opportunity to get up and take the plates over to the kitchen counter—no walker. He has not even used the walker since. We still have some bathroom issues to deal with—frequent urges with no production. They started him on Flomax while at the hospital. So we’ll see what happens but the change in his behavior and abilities is remarkable. PTL.
lori how wonderful to hear how well your DH responded to the hospital stay and meds. i have found over the course of this disease that any little sickness or infection can bring them down so very quickly. their immunity responses seem to go with the disease as it progresses. the flomax will help with the urges sensations by calming the bladder spasms.
This walking thing concerns me...I see my DH having more troubles at times during the day and he always says he is "fine"..he can feel clammy to me..and then his glucose is too low.....but most of the time his walking is slow and seems undsteady to me yet other times he has a better pace...but slow just the same..I can't tell if it is neuropathy in his feet from diabetes or the ALZ or some of both and he always dismisses this when we visit this doctors...in fact the doctors are making me angry these days too as they seem to be listening to him and treating me as though I am a nervous mother..but I am the one living with this..I swear next time a doctor treats me like this I am going to get up and walk out and if they ask why I am leaving the answer will be " you don't seem to put much merit on what I tell you so why should I be here?"
Mimi: That must be so awful for you. My dh cannot communicate with the doctor, so when we go in all the doctor says is "hello" to my dh and then looks to me to explain how he has gotten worse, what is new and different, etc. I would really be mad at the doctor too if he ignored me. You would think the doctor would know he cannot really count on what your dh is saying as being factual. At least if my dh says something you can't count on it as being factual.
By and large this is the same one who thinks it is a good idea if DH sheds about 8 more lbs..and pegged me as worrying too much about his wt loss figuring out on his set of records that in the last several months back his loss is really only 4 lbs..I was talking about going from 188 to 181 in about5 weeks time not because he is actively dieting ( though the doctor now sort of has this idea in the mind of DH) but because no matter what I fix getting him to eat much of anything is more and more difficult. The only doc who said don't worry about wt is the neuro..who gets it..