Hi, how I empathise with you all! I am a fairly old hand at this, but, christmas night my mother in law who has dementia and lives with us raced out of her bedroom at 1am(having as usual waited too long and also forgotten she has a commode in situ every night) fell, and gashed her leg. Six and a half hours in A & E before we got seen. Leg washed, dressed and stitched as she would have immediately removed steri strips. She has always picked at any spots etc, all her life. District nurses then came in to dress it. About four days on, middle of the night, she ripped off the bandages and pulled half the stitches out before I heard her. aagh! Nursing team came to house at 3am to redress it as too bad for me to tackle I felt. Now, last night, having healed and had the bandages removed at last, she has ripped two holes in it with her nails at 1.30am despite my putting a stockinette bandage over it. Afraid I lost it a bit, I was so looking forward to getting her in the bath come Monday. I told her she was very, very silly, that if she got an infection (she also has diabetes)she could lose her leg or die. To which she retorted, "I would rather be dead than live with you!" I walked away and left her to it I'm afraid. This morning it was weeping and red. So no bath tomorrow and she is a tyrant about washing as it is. Tommorrow is another day. She. xx
