Crohn’s Disease & Elder Care

Seniors are not just elderly, they are like children. They want love, affection, care, and concern. They also need a bit more health care compared to others. At this stage of life, their bodies are weak, and they cannot fight against every virus and disease they did back in the day, which is why it is our responsibility to take care of them. One of the problems they face is Crohn’s Disease; read further on to know more about it.

As adults grow older and turn into seniors, their bodies undergo significant changes. These changes also include a change in the digestive system. It loses the bial, nutrients, and supplements it needs to digest food properly and make it proceed through the intestine. At times, the small and large intestine are inflamed, which causes abdominal pain, diarrhea, and passing stool at times can be painful, or contain blood. Crohn’s disease is claimed if this is inherited and passed on within the family.

Through genetics, we get many features form our grandparents, and our parents as well. Often, it happens that a doctor will ask the elderly if they have a family history of such things. The reason being is that just because your parents had a strong immune system, that does not mean you do either. The main cause for this problem is when the immune system starts to weaken, and is exposed to bacteria and acid. White blood cells try to fix this but instead end up causing inflammation in the intestines.

Symptoms

Elderly care is very important, and keeping a track of which symptoms show when is important as well. Symptoms can come anytime and any day without warning. This is why personal in home care or proper elderly home care is so important. The symptoms for Crohn’s disease include pain in the lower right quadrant, unexplainable abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Joint pain, skin irritations, fatigue, headaches,   and such behavior can also be observed.

Complications Involved

There are many complications that can result from this disease, since it affects the digestive system. Since we have vitamins, minerals, and important digestive bial there, loss of such supplements or the extra absorption will affect other organs. Inflammation can cause problems related to the anus of the patient, and even to their bladder, skin around the anus, and for females, their private areas.

Treatment

The treatment is dependent upon the condition of the patient, how serious is the disease, where it has affected them and the treatment they had, if they have had this issue previously. The main purpose of the treatment is to help relax the muscles, and bowels which had the inflammation. Sometimes, the treatment given has side effects on the elderly care patient, they are known as the 5 ASA symptoms, namely nausea, vomiting, heartburn, headaches, and diarrhea.

Surgery

Seniors who suffer from Crohn’s disease undergo surgery at some point which is used to resolve issues that can make the patient’s condition worse. These include changing their intestine’s structure, or fixing other abnormal problems.

The nurses at Partners in Healthcare are available to talk with you about your in-home senior care needs including how to stay healthy at home with RN managed affordable care. We are a private duty home care agency that provides elder home care services in the Orlando area, call us at 407-788-9393.