Hi Everybody,

Since these infections have been mentioned today, I thought I would share my
observations with Ida when she got one.

It seems to me that not just people with Az, but many older people lose
their sense of feeling thirsty, and tend not to drink enough liquids during
the course of the day.   It is even worse when you try and suggest they
drink water, because they refuse, insisting they aren't thirsty.    Some of
the symptoms I have noticed when people aren't getting enough fluids are:
feeling cold all the time, feeling tired, feeling achy, and having a
headache.

Since all the senses, taste, hearing, sight, etc. all seem to diminish in
one way or another as we age, it seems reasonable that the feelings of
hunger and thirst would seem to diminish too.

I found that the only way I could get enough liquids into my mother in law
was to constantly offer her tea or decaf coffee or cocoa or some other thing
to drink at regular times throughout the day, because she surely would not
ask or help herself to a drink on her own.

As far as food is concerned, tooth problems often make eating difficult in
the elderly also, so getting enough good nutrition can become difficult too.
My mother in law would always eat anything sweet (which wasn't all that good
for her) but I could always get her to eat my homemade soup.   Everything
else was iffy.

Eventually it got to be that the only meal she really enjoyed was a bowl of
thick homemade soup with lots of different veggies in it, and a bit of bread
and butter.

We did a lot of soup-making because of that, and I always had a good variety
of frozen homemade soups on hand in the freezer.    (Before she got to the
point where she couldn't do it anymore) she used to help me with peeling and
chopping vegetables for the soup.   It was an easy task, one she could do
well (with a little supervision from me), and we would work together so it
became "therapy" for both of us  :-)     It gave her something to do, kept
her hands busy, and helped me out all at the same time.

I might add that I supervised it carefully and made sure she had the right
cutting board and a good knife that wasn't overly sharp, but was
serviceable.   She needed to be told what to do, but she managed just fine.

Sitting together at the kitchen table chopping veggies for soup was also a
good opportunity to get her to drink a cup of tea with me too.

Nice memories :-)