My husband has dementia and an enlarged prostate and I have to use a catheter about 3 x a day on him. He gets repeated UTI’s and has had repeated antibiotics. He sometimes will swallow pills but mostly chews them. He also will often spit them out. It depends on his mood. The antibiotics have to be swallowed and not chewed for at least 14 days but he seldom will do this. We tried the liquid antibiotic but they did not cure the UTI. Also at the end of a course on say Cipro, he is dizzy and off balanced and has fallen which he usually walks fine when not taking them. This last bout our Dr sent him to an infectious care Dr who was not much help. Said to break the pills up but I said pharmacy said not to chew them. He said he was not aware of that and checked. Came back and prescribed a powder called Monurol which can causes diarrhea and in some cases life threatening diarrhea. Of course this will dehydrate him and it is a battle to get him to drink water anyway. So I am trying natural means to see if I can cure it. I see some progress but then he stops his intake of water and progress reverses a little. I fear the UTI but if the treatment causes dehydration and if the use of the catheter will only cause repeated UTI’s and the antibiotic treatments make him fall, if I can get him to take them, I just do not know what to do. Drs listen but you can tell they don’t care . They are not going over the facts and seeing if we can think of a solution to try. I would feel better if they appeared to try and figure something else to try. He has no fever and while sometimes he acts out , he does not stay in his dark mood long. I call it his NO mood. He says NO to everything but this is also a characteristic of dementia and seldom last more than a few hours. Not sure what advice / thoughts anyone has about this. Just feeling bad at times wondering which course to take since repeated antibiotics does not seem right either.
I’m sorry you’ve encountered doctors that you feel “don’t care”. I’m luck to have one who really does care, but it took me a while to find her. Have you seen a Urologist? Has anyone suggested a Supra Pubic catheter? It’s inserted through the stomach, right above the pubic bone. People here have said it causes less infections than ones inserted into the urethra.
As for his intake of water, I’m not a big fan of drinking water either. We had a bottled water dispenser at one time that served cold and hot water. To me, it tasted better than tap water. I also purchase flavored drops to add to water. No sugar or calories. Fruits also contain a lot of water.
Hope this helps!
Putting in a catheter above the pubic bone was discussed but he would pull it out. I take him to get IV of high dose vitamin C and if I do not watch him, he has pulled it out. I am giving him dMannose and oil of oregano, and vitamin C.
We are moving to a new home in 2 weeks and it has a water filter and if he does not like it I will try a dispenser. Also I will try the flavored drops. I did try HINT water which is flavored but he did not like it. It seems whenever I find one he seems to like ,he turns against it in a week or so. I am hoping the move to a new house will help as it is one story and had a large backyard which will have a 6 foot fence with keypad locks which will allow him to roam without being in danger. He always loved to be outdoors.
Again thanks and I will follow up on all ideas.