Caring for My Mother with Alzheimer’s: What Has Helped
Hello everyone,
I wanted to share my experience caring for my 82-year-old mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease three years ago. Before the symptoms appeared, she suffered a stroke, and later, she fell and broke her hip, which now requires her to use a wheelchair. She needs help with most of her daily needs, so I’ve hired a nurse to care for her 8 hours a day, every day.
Through this journey, I’ve found a few things that have made a significant difference:
1. Daily Video Calls: For the past three years, I’ve done video calls with her every single day for 20-30 minutes. We talk about our day, and I ask her memory-related questions like what she ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. These exercises have helped her stay more present and aware. Before we started this, she was often lost in time and space, sometimes thinking she was still working and trying to leave the house in the middle of the night. Daily conversations have helped ground her reality.
2. Medication & Supplements: In addition to prescribed medications, Vascepa (a prescription omega-3 medication derived from EPA, used to support heart and cognitive health) has had a remarkable impact on her mental clarity.
3. Preventing Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs): UTIs can mimic or worsen Alzheimer’s symptoms. My mother has incontinence, so I ensure she stays clean and use Uquora (an over-the-counter UTI prevention supplement available in the U.S.). When I can’t get it, I use D-Mannose, a sugar that helps prevent infections. Managing this has significantly improved her stability. Whenever I see AD symptoms first thing I do is get a culture to check for UTIs and if she has one treat with antibiotics where appropriate.
4. Establishing Routine & Orientation: Routine is key. She wakes up and goes to bed at the same time each day. I also installed a digital clock with a 9-inch screen in her room displaying the date, time, and whether it’s morning or night, helping her stay oriented.
5. Monitoring & Smart Devices:
• Ring Cameras ensure her well-being when I’m not there.
• A Smart Bedside Light (I use Philips Hue) allows me to turn it off remotely, ensuring she sleeps in complete darkness, which is essential for good rest.
• A photo frame (Nixplay) with pictures and short videos for refreshing her memory next to her bed. You can control with your phone and setup wake up and sleep times on it to don't disturb her sleep.
These steps have been the most effective in improving her quality of life. I hope this helps anyone going through a similar journey. If you have any strategies that have worked for you, I’d love to hear them.
Stay strong.
Hello, and thank you for being here and sharing your caregiving journey and supportive recommendations with our community. Your detailed list is appreciated and will help many looking for advice and suggestions on what has worked well for others as they care for a loved one. Your post will also encourage communication within our forum. Does your mother do well with taking her medications? My father had trouble swallowing his meds. We found alternative ways to support him. I wrote a piece titled Tips & Strategies to Help the Medicine Go Down. https://alzheimersdisease.net/living/medication-tips-strategies. Thank you for sharing your tips and offering continued strength to all. Warmly, Nancy Alzheimersdisease.net Team Member we did go through a few months where she had trouble swallowing pills. It was not that she couldn’t physically swallow them it was like she didn’t understand what she was supposed to do with them and would keep them in her mouth. She was very disoriented back then poor thing. I found that it was a bad UTI and after clearing it she went back to normal after a few weeks thanks god. Hopefully she would stay stable for as long as possible. Thank you for your link, I will take a look, right now there is no problem but better be prepared for anything. 
Thank you for your response. Many in our community experience the same thing with regard to swallowing pills. With my loved one, there is a lot of confusion now and we go one pill at a time with a lot of water. What are some ways that you would get the pills down during UTIs? Scott Team Member
, I love your screenname! Resilience has become my favorite concept over the last few years.
Thank you for sharing these tips, there are so many things that can be helpful to have in our arsenal. And it helps to know that someone has used them successfully. - Warmly, Donna (Team Member)
