I’m wondering if anyone has suggestions for dealing with someone in fairly late-stage Alzheimer's combined with Bulimia. I’m the sole caregiver for my younger sister with these issues. She binges and vomits after every meal or even a small snack. While she does eat normal meals, she can eat a full bag of sugar in a week, and loves raw ingredients like flour, corn starch, shortening, etc. (I’ve talked with several doctors, and they say let her binge on whatever she wants (even sugar), because of her extremely low body weight. I do have my pantry stocked with other healthier foods and a variety of sweet cereal, cookies, etc. but she consistently goes for raw ingredients.
I feel like I’m either feeding her, bathing her, or cleaning after her all day and into the night (when vomiting, it thoroughly covers much of the bathroom including the floor, toilet, sink and even the mirror as high as I can reach. Of course, this is combined with liberal doses of poop, rubbed pretty much everywhere. I can’t get her to clean her hands so pretty much every surface in the house has a layer of icky stickiness that I clean several times a day. The pantry is similarly a mess from where she spilled whatever she is binging on. The floors throughout the house is specked with spit.
I feel like I’m cleaning nonstop, to no avail. Also, I get very little sleep because she is sundowning. I can’t afford outside help because her income and mine are above the level where we can get any assistance. Yet nearly all of our combined income is going toward her care. So, there’s no money for housekeepers or outside caregivers.
I’m wondering if anyone has ideas on dealing with Bulimia/Alzheimer’s. This has been going on for about 5 years. Is there any hope she will eventually just forget this behavior as her Alzheimer’s continues to progress? (I’ve heard that alcoholics sometimes forget to drink, but her bulimia shows no sign of abating).
Doctors are no help and have no suggestion other than letting her do what she wants. Anyone have ideas?
What sort of doctors have you consulted?
You and she urgently need a break.
How long has she lived with you?
i hope there is some way for your life to improve: that's extremely tough what you're going through every day.
i want to comment on bulimia: as you know, bulimia is vomiting on purpose. i doubt your sister has bulimia.
your sister might have swallowing problems. alzheimer's can create many physical problems: for example, destroying throat muscles (hard to swallow). destroying bladder muscles (leading to incontinence), etc.
the mother of a friend of mine vomited every time after eating - NOT because she wanted to vomit. her muscles could no longer handle certain rough foods (like crackers, meat, etc.) - anything that involves a lot of chewing. now they changed the diet to softer foods (not totally pureed, but softer). she totally stopped vomiting. she's finally gaining weight: good.
regarding nutrition, you must cut all access to all that bad food. try to get your sister to eat delicious, real, nutritious food. bad food should be an exceptional treat. only bad things will happen to the mind/body from over-eating bad food.
of course we all like sweet things, now and then. but sugar is in many ways addictive and destructive for both the mind & body. in japan, for example, at home they often label the sugar jar "poison", to remind oneself to be careful.
*edit: also, too much sugar = diarrhea, poop everywhere. it's all related. bad nutrition = increases problems.
Also, an insight I’ve gleaned from this forum is that most doctors are clueless about caregiving. Your sister’s doctors will be happy to let you continue caregiving and cleaning up feces and vomit 24/7 all the way to an early grave. You have to advocate for yourself — no one else will.
I can't speak to the Alzheimer's; I don't have that much experience with it. But I think just in terms of general nutrition, there's so much harm being done to her body that it could heighten her mind and body instability. In fact, I recall reading something last year on a health site about the effect of sugar on dementia.
I'd be searching for another doctor and keep doing so until I find one that wants to treat her seriously.
I give you a lot of credit for persevering in this very challenging situation.
You might seriously need to do the er social admit for real. As in you take her there and say she can’t go home with you, has no one else and can’t care for herself. Because it really sounds like she needs a snf. She won’t have unlimited food to binge on, and staff can always walk in on her in the toilet. That at least would mitigate the bulimia.