Hi my mom has moderate Alz and is in AL and doing fine but we need a 24 hr urine sample. We have collected urine samples before and it is not a problem for a one-off but for a 24 hour sample how do we monitor her? What if she needs to do a bm? The nurse at AL and I couldn't figure out how it might possibly work other than my shadowing her for 24 hours to make sure she only uses her toilet, doesn't remove the collection cap, etc. Plus the first one of the day shouldn't be included in the sample. What a pain! Has anyone ever done this and what did you do?
Once my mom was diagnosed with dementia, we cut WAY back on testing for things.
As a wise Gerontology specialist told me, "if you aren't going to treat it, don't do the test."
my friend's mom had one, she could tell...
she obviously saw it the tube, but they were hesitant in treating it. She had to demand! Urine cleared up .
My mom only has mild dementia (more MCI) and she has had moderate kidney failure for two decades. She is also very incontinent. When her PCP also asked for a 24 hour urine at one point, I thought it was completly impractical for the same reasons and I pushed back. I wanted to know why she needed the test and the PCP said it was for monitoring and would not change any treatment because there was nothing that could be done to treat or reverse the damage. So, I declined having her do the test. There was no benefit to her.
I just moved my mom to hospice for palliative treatment for a condition that will result in chronic UTIs. At my last visit with her PCP, she was expecting us to somehow do clean catch urine samples on a regular basis when she can barely stand. I asked to use a hat but she said it the wouldn't be sterile. I'm not sure what fantasy-world these doctors live in sometimes. That was our last doctor's visit because we were both done!
And yes the folks at her AL need to make sure that she's only using her toilet to pee, as they can put the enclosed pail that goes with a bedside commode over her toilet to catch her pee, meaning the whole bedside commode will go over her toilet with bucket/pail attached. And if she has to poop the CNA will have to remove the the pail part so she can just poop in the toilet. Either that or the CNA will have to remove the poop from the pee in the bucket.
And the CNA will have to be with your mom first thing in the morning to collect the first urine of the day.