Sitting too long causing a pain in the posterior.

Archeron

Weird question if I may.
My mum is disabled, and spends pretty much all of her time sitting down.
Most of the time, she sits on the side of her bed in her room, but she also spends some time on her armchair in the living room. Because she does not sleep very well, she spends pretty much 20 hours a day sitting on the edge of her bed. She is unable to lie down due to her arthritis, so her only option when I am not there to help her is to sit. She has found though in recent time that her backside is getting very sore from sitting like this.

We've tried her sitting on cushions and pillows, and even those posture altering triangular shaped cushions (which work great for me BTW) but nothing seems to help. I'd like to try and help her alleviate her pain a bit, but I am not quite sure what sort of cushion would do the trick, as so far, nothing has helped.

If anyone found themself in a similar position, and can offer advice, I'd be very grateful.

Rev Hellfire

You could try pressure relieving mattresses and an air sheet.

RainyDay

Can she get professional advice from a nurse or OT?

Archeron

RainyDay wrote:

Can she get professional advice from a nurse or OT?

Realistically yes, but sadly, we are having trouble getting some aspects of the help we need, so despite my mums medical card, if I can cut the amount of time she has to wait to get something that would help, I would gladly pay for it myself. To give an indication, we had an appointment for someone to come and do a blood test for her, (because of her medication, she needs this fairly regular) and three weeks after the date the nurse was supposed to come, we are still trying to get to speak to her on the phone to find out whats happening. Regardles of cost, if I can bypass this type of delay, I will.

Please note I stree the word SOME because some of the help we get is fantastic, but some is abysmal. Thats not a reflection on the health service as a whole who have generally been fantastic to us, but more a reflection of the specific people we are dealing with on certain issues.

snorlax

if she's getting pressure sores you really need a nurse to dress the sores otherwise they could become infected. ring them up and tell them as this is a priority for health care as for an elderly person infections etc are dangerous.

pressure sores range from just redness to all the skin being worn away. yes you really do need to be assessed by a trained OT and nurse as it's impossible for anyone here to make medical diagnosis etc, medical advice can be dangerous if it's wrong hence speaking to the profs is the only way forward. keep hassling them until them do something or make a complaint (there are forms for this).

looksee

This is not intended to be any sort of medical advice, just an observation that might be of interest. My elderly mum had very severe pain in her knee after a stroke, she dragged the leg and the knee started to twist, and there was some arthritis implications. She got some ointment based on capsicum (chillies), here its called Capsiacin but there are other versions. The effect on her knee has been amazing, to the extent that at best she can straighten up and move her knee in a more natural manner.

You have to get it on prescription and it is NOT for use on bed sores or anything resembling them. It might be worth enquiring about.