Pressure Sores

Since Dad is very sedentary, he is prone to pressure sores. For years, the sores have been on his backside because not only did he sit in a chair all day (refusing any kind of exercise or activity), he sat all night sleeping in his chair. We have been able to keep them under control by using hosptial-grade diapers that keep him drier and special skin cream for early-stage pressure sores.

Very shortly after we started making Dad sleep in the bed, a pressure sore began developing on his heel. We used the cream that works for his sores on his backside and put a pillow under his calves to lift his heels off the bed. Although Dad doesn't move any more than he has to, he was able to get the pillow out from under his legs. His heels were down on the bed, and he developed a serious pressure sore. We took him to his regular doctor who referrerd him to a wound specialist.

The wound specialist prescribed several things, including compression bandages for both legs. We had been putting surgical socks on Dad, but that wasn't enough. Since my mother-in-law has for years put a pillow next to her feet to keep the pressure of the covers off her feet, we wanted to try that too to see if that would help also. My husband built a cage to lift the blankets just off his feet.

All was going pretty well, just taking more time to get him up in the morning and in bed at night, until yesterday morning. When my husband came downstairs at 5:30 a.m. (our usual time), a wave of poop smell hit him. In the night, Dad had thrown off all the covers, undressed himself from the waist down, and ripped off the compression bandages. Poop was everywhere. It took my husband over an hour to get him cleaned up.

Obviously Dad can move around a lot more than he usually does when he really wants to...