Dementia and moving things and fiddling with everything?

Philbo

Registered User
Feb 28, 2017
853
0
Kent
The mention of cushions makes me wince - the front room ones end up on our bed and vice-versa. Not long ago, I wondered why one of the sofa cushions felt lumpy - only to find an apple inside the zip-up cover!:eek:

I don't know how long it had been there, just glad I found it when I did.:D
 

Amethyst59

Registered User
Jul 3, 2017
5,776
0
Kent
The mention of cushions makes me wince - the front room ones end up on our bed and vice-versa. Not long ago, I wondered why one of the sofa cushions felt lumpy - only to find an apple inside the zip-up cover!:eek:

I don't know how long it had been there, just glad I found it when I did.:D
We've just had a giggle over that one!
 

Sue17

Registered User
May 24, 2017
12
0
My mum also hides her boxes of tissues. I kept buying her more, thinking she was using them quickly but then one day I asked her where her tissues were and she searched and ended up showing me some in a cupboard and said she puts them away as they are a 'fire risk' to leave around the house ! Grrrrr.. I worked out then that's why she never has any kitchen roll in her kitchen when I need it too LOL It's hidden away as it's a fire risk!
 

Philbo

Registered User
Feb 28, 2017
853
0
Kent
I may have mentioned this a previous posts but my wife's sister got her a fiddle-mitt, which she seemed to like.

Then one day, I noticed that she'd started to pull off some of the items attached (curtain rings, buttons etc). The crunch came (almost literally) when I found her apparently chewing something - eventually got her to spit out one of the rather large buttons from the mitt.:eek: I've now hidden it away.
 

SnowWhite

Registered User
Nov 18, 2016
699
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I may have mentioned this a previous posts but my wife's sister got her a fiddle-mitt, which she seemed to like.

Then one day, I noticed that she'd started to pull off some of the items attached (curtain rings, buttons etc). The crunch came (almost literally) when I found her apparently chewing something - eventually got her to spit out one of the rather large buttons from the mitt.:eek: I've now hidden it away.

Philbo - i mentioned these fiddle mitts or muffs earlier and I have to say, I have wondered about this myself. Instructions usually say that any items must be sewn on securely but, anyone determined to do so, will get them off.

At my mums Care home they never put her hearing aids in or changed the batteries. One time I asked whether this could be done and I was told by a careworker that they're always losing them and one woman is often found with them in her mouth. I found that horrifying as those tiny batteries are lethal if swallowed. You would think they would carry out risk assessments and remove them from their rooms in cases like that.
 

yak55

Registered User
Jun 15, 2015
616
0
Can anyone work out why PWDs can't leave things as they are? They move everything ...switch things off when they should be on...turn off radiators, hot water and boilers and mobile phones, move and hide tissue boxes, kitchen towels, keys, glasses etc and even when notes are placed in relevant places these are not there within a few hours. My mother buys a TV schedule magazine and then hides it and spends half the day, everyday, looking for it. She says she doesn't move anything and one day I tested her by saying here's your TV magazine and I put it on her coffee table ..please don't move it I said...she said 'of course I won't move it!'...I came back 30 minutes later and it was nowhere to be found!!! It is so frustrating as I go there and spend time looking for things that she needs instead of doing things for her or just spending quality time with her.

I gave her a pretty note book to write things in with my help ...answers to questions she always asks (so that I could remind her to read it when she phones me) and she said "what a good idea"...the pages lasted 2 days (a record!) before they were torn out of the book and lost forever...she had no idea who did it !!!! I searched the house and bins for those pages but she had well and truly got rid of them....what goes on in their minds!? The notebook idea was on the Dementia advice I read from the Alzhiemers society....do these advice givers ever spend any time with Dementia sufferers?? I know most sufferers are all slightly different but my.mother and Aunt both do this habitually and I'm sure others do too from what I've read.
I have learnt the hard way. I would spend ages searching for items Mum had squirrelled away but I now have her clothes folded up in a locked suitcase, her toiletries are in cupboard and anything that I don't want ruined taken out of her bedroom. I've replaced the items in the drawers with things she can move around.
I agree about the labels/notes that the help pages say would help a PWD find things but that wouldn't help my Mum, she would throw them away.
One particular night I had to duck tape all of the drawers and wardrobes shut as Mum was continually opening them and closing them, I've since removed some furniture and it's much better.
The scariest thing about this illness is, what happens next? I'm petrified
 

SnowWhite

Registered User
Nov 18, 2016
699
0
An aunt of mine had Alzheimer's and when we emptied her house every single knife, fork and spoon was individually wrapped in kitchen paper and then bound with many elastic bands. That solved a puzzle for my Mum as she did shopping for her and every week she would ask for packets of elastic bands.
 

Sarah17

Registered User
Oct 7, 2017
14
0
Warwickshire
Yes I just wonder what is going through their minds. My husband continually hides keys, bus pass, wallet - favourite hiding places are microwave or inside socks in his socks drawer. Again labelling anything is a waste of time as these notes also disappear. I have to search bins every evening to find out what's been put in there.
All switches have to be "off" so I've given up using the slow cooker,as it was a continual game of on/off all day long and nothing gets cooked properly!

We just have to laugh at the absurdity of it all!
Oops just found hospital appointment letter in the bin :eek:
 

Elle3

Registered User
Jun 30, 2016
705
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I had to laugh when I read this post and the replies, as I have the exact same problem with my dad. Only this Saturday my dad tells me over the phone that someone had taken all his keys and he couldn't get out of his house. When I arrived no sign of said keys but after searching in all the usual places I eventually found them under his pillow and he always swears it wasn't him. Only today when I arrived at dads he again couldn't find his key and he said he'd been looking for it all morning. This time I found the key in his back trouser pocket and again he said he hadn't put it there. Then this afternoon we began the search for 2 very large bars of chocolate and two multi packs of twix's that I'd discovered on Saturday. There is no sign of them anywhere and I can't believe he could have eaten all of them, as I think it would have made him very sick. I think boredom has a lot to answer for it, my dad just messes and moves things into safe places and then he can't remember moving them and just blames other people. I've discovered I'm not actually very good at this hide and seek lark as my dad wins most of the time, lol!
 

SnowWhite

Registered User
Nov 18, 2016
699
0
It's a couple of months since I had to get a new digi box for the TV.
Have you tried using one without a remote control? :confused:

I still haven't found the old one...........................

Talking of remote controls ...... mum is in rehab but the nurse was telling me that one man broke 5 remote controls during the week he was in there!

Before mum went into care she got muddled with her remote control, her hand held house phone and the controls for her reclining chair.
 

Elle3

Registered User
Jun 30, 2016
705
0
It's a couple of months since I had to get a new digi box for the TV.
Have you tried using one without a remote control? :confused:

I still haven't found the old one...........................

Snap! We are missing a remote control too. Dad is back to the old fashioned way of having to press a button on the TV to change a channel, but he does get very muddled with it. We even find the aerial taken out sometimes and he's tried to plug it into some other random hole in the TV.
 

DeMartin

Registered User
Jul 4, 2017
711
0
Kent
Dad always unplugged everything, then would ring me to say the satellite box wouldn’t work. I taped a forceful note across the electrical plugs, worked for a while, we had to tape the others to the TV set, he never lost the remotes though, he’d fall asleep gripping them, and heaven help you if you wanted to sneakily change the program, not a chance!
 

Julieborough

Registered User
Jul 25, 2018
22
0
My mum has a thing about turning off any lights. Including her Dementia clock, WiFi, tv standby and skybox. She turns them off at night and then wonders why they are not working in the morning. It’s really upsetting as she loves watching tv and has to wait for someone to come and turn it back on.

Any ideas what I can do? I was thinking off colouring the standby light with a permanent black marker so it’s not as bright a blue. Not sure if this will interfere with the remote though. Oh for an old fashion on and off tv. The remote hiding is also the bane of my life
 

Rosettastone57

Registered User
Oct 27, 2016
1,839
0
My mum has a thing about turning off any lights. Including her Dementia clock, WiFi, tv standby and skybox. She turns them off at night and then wonders why they are not working in the morning. It’s really upsetting as she loves watching tv and has to wait for someone to come and turn it back on.

Any ideas what I can do? I was thinking off colouring the standby light with a permanent black marker so it’s not as bright a blue. Not sure if this will interfere with the remote though. Oh for an old fashion on and off tv. The remote hiding is also the bane of my life
Hi you might be better off starting your own new thread so members can see it straightaway. This one is nearly a year old.
 

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