Having a long life and becoming elderly is what most people want, but being long-lived brings with it many difficulties to overcome, illnesses, special care and family abandonment are the ones that come to mind at this time and in this publication I want to share what I have learned based on my experience because it can be useful to anyone who is caring for an elderly person.

These are some of the tools that I have learned and have helped me in the last five years that I have been taking care of my grandmother, clarifying that I am not a geriatrician nor do I have knowledge in nursing

Nutrition and medications

Until last year my 92 year old grandmother ate by herself, she would grab the silverware and put it in her mouth, although sometimes she would play and throw the food all over the place, she was still given the opportunity to feed herself, but this year she stopped eating and we have had to give her food in her mouth, although she is reluctant to do so.

My grandmother is a healthy person, she only suffers from hypertension, her diet is balanced and she can eat the same as the family, soups, grains, meats, salads, fruits and desserts.

Currently, she has stopped eating because she is forgetting to chew and does not want to drink water, which has made it difficult for her to ingest her medications, she takes medications for her blood pressure and hyperactivity, if she does not take these medications her blood pressure can rise and cause a stroke or she can spend up to 3 days without sleeping day or night doing mischief and that is a horrible wear and tear for those who care for them.

Recommendations on nutrition

If the person does not want to eat or drink normal water, you can offer coconut water or pediatric serums that can be drunk with straws or spoons. If the person resists, you can give fruits or vegetables that contain a lot of liquid such as pumpkin, pumpkin or pumpkin and fruits such as pumpkin, melon, among others.

Recommendation about the medicine

I thought that my grandmother was always going to receive her medicine because she was very responsible and conscious, but from one day to the next she rejected this as well as to hydrate herself and if she does not hydrate she cannot be given medicine either, what happens if they no longer want to receive the medicine? At the beginning we used to pulverize and disintegrate it in water, but it doesn't work that way anymore, so you can give it to them in fruits like bananas, milk, melon, boiled bananas, avocados and even cookies, cakes, anything they want to eat and allow them to sneak the medicine in, taking into consideration if these foods do not affect their health, because you cannot give sweets or cakes to a diabetic person, nor to renal patients.

My grandmother still chews when she wants to, but every day she is getting older and it is possible that she will stop chewing and when that happens we plan to give her creams and water with the help of a teat, those with which babies are fed, because we have already proven that it is the best tool in cases of people who are bedridden or that senile memory has won them, My grandmother has a brother 10 years younger than her and her daughters feed him with a bottle, it is something practical and less traumatic for the elderly with the due respect that every elderly person deserves and with the love we have for our elders we can make use of this tool, taking care of their image and integrity, not making a mockery of this.

Bathing and skin care

The first symptom of senile memory in my grandmother was the lack of control of her sphincters, she forgot the habit of going to the bathroom to relieve herself and even though for a year I took her every so often and asked her if she felt like doing something, she always ended up wetting herself, so it was necessary to use items to facilitate hygiene and cleanliness.

Bathing gloves

An important part of health is hygiene for both the elderly and the caregiver, so it is essential to use plastic gloves of those sold in hardware stores that are harder and more resistant to wash the intimate parts, at first I used surgical gloves because of the sensitivity of the area, but these gloves do not last and are very fragile being discarded daily being very expensive. The gloves that I recommend are to be used only in the parts when you have body waste, once clean they are washed again with soap and water with our hands, without any scruple, who loves his family member is not disgusted by his care.

Warm water

Old people are usually always cold and they are prone to catching flu and viruses, so you have to bathe them with warm water and in closed environments, with some exceptions depending on the case if they suffer from varicose veins can be bathed with cold water in the lower extremities that will help circulation and heal the wounds of varicose ulcers.

Diapers

My grandma thanks God she only uses diapers to sleep and that is because we make the sacrifice of buying them for her to have a better rest, because before we could not buy them and we changed her bedding every night, which caused the interruption of her sleep and more tiredness for my mom and me.

We have tried many brands, the best ones are the ones that have the appearance of fabric that comes covered with cotton and absorb more, some are in the form of panties I recommend these for daily use and the others that are wider for the night, as they can be adapted to the body and leave them somewhat loose for comfort.

To avoid getting bedsores on the skin due to the use of diapers, I recommend always applying creams, all over your body, because the skin of the elderly is very weak and fragile, so it needs more care and hydration, then it is best to apply creams before putting diapers.

Antibiotics for the skin

My grandmother is still active, she walks and sometimes runs, heh, heh, heh, heh and if we lose sight of her for a moment she is likely to climb a chair, ladder or tree, which has caused some accidents on her skin, every time she scratches or cuts herself it is horrible because she does not let anything heal, she sticks her finger in the wound, she tears her skin and everything gets complicated, the slightest wound becomes something worse.

That is why we add to the cream that we apply some antibiotic capsules for the skin, we take out the powder that comes in the capsules, about three are enough and mix them with the cream, this helps effectively with the wounds, or bedsores that come out to people who spend a lot of time lying down who use diapers or who are prone to get wounds, this is not a medical advice is simply a recommendation based on my experience.

Bedtime

False teeth

If you use false teeth, it is vital to remove them before going to sleep and keep them in a glass of water, because they can choke on them and interrupt your sleep.

Mattress protection

Even if our relative or caregiver uses diapers, fluids will always be transferred to the mattress, so it is necessary to protect it from getting wet with urine and mites proliferate, the best is to use a material that in my country we call semi-leather that, on the one hand, has something similar to leather and on the other hand is soft as if it had cotton, does not give heat and is easy to clean every day.

Protective railing

When my grandmother was about 85 years old which was the age when she stopped being independent she started to fall out of her bed, causing bumps on her face and bruises on her body, this happened twice before I thought of a solution, I remembered the semi cribs, which are the beds that are used after a crib, I remembered the semi-cots, which are beds that are used after a crib, that is to say, when the baby grows a little, he stops using the crib and moves to a bed that has protective rails on the sides to prevent him from falling and that was what inspired me to ask a blacksmith to make me a tool that could be placed and removed easily.

We changed the position of my grandmother's bed so that it was attached to the wall and the free side is where she sits, so I needed it to be practical to put on and take off, once you put it on it is tight and has served for my grandmother to hold on to when she wants to sit, but she can not remove it, it is one of the most useful things that has served us in this process.

Walker or canes

Getting your older relatives used to using a cane and a walker is beneficial, my grandmother had knee surgery and has a prosthesis so she used a cane for years, but then she stopped using it, these last few months we noticed that she lost her balance and her security and we decided to buy her a walker so that she would be safe, but she doesn't like it and doesn't use it, she prefers to carry me around as her crutch, but in the real world we live in I can't be her full time nurse, unfortunately she didn't get used to the walker and that has made things more complicated for us, that's why I recommend not to wait until your family member is so old to give her these tools.

Recreation

Games to pass the time and children's movies are very helpful for the family caring for an elderly person, those little moments of rest are worth gold, when I started to take care of my grandmother it was like having a 3 year old hyperactive girl who could not keep her hands still or her body use everything, I bought her play dough and she was entertained for a while, then she stopped liking it, I bought her a flexible dough that was very expensive and the sticky sensation she didn't like either, anti-stress dolls and she exploited them, I couldn't find what to buy until we discovered the pop it, this game prevented me from collapsing, she liked it and she can spend hours playing with it. 100% recommendable.

Another good thing to do is to make them watch children's movies, animated and musicals.

Love and patience in exponential doses

I did not think to extend in this publication, but I thought that the examples would help to explain my advice, to finish I recommend to wake them up with patience and calm, as it is done with the babies we should also do it with our elders, little by little, not to leave them lying down all day although that is what one would like because of the exhaustion, it is necessary to wake them up and do it in parts, At the time of writing this post my grandmother needs two people to get up and three for her daily care, it seems that we are many, but if the same people have to take care of the house, make the food, wash, clean and so on, taking into account that there must always be one close to her, then we are few.

My grandmother had many children, but only one who is my mom is the one who takes care of her without rest, with a special aunt and my person, we do not know to what extent we can keep us like this, as over time we are getting sick, family abandonment in old age is sad, but it is a reality, please take care of your family members support those who have them in their care, without more to say hoping that this publication has been useful, I say goodbye thanking you for your time and support.

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