Her doctor has said she takes far too many "medications". She has only 3 regular scripts - blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and dementia. She takes as many as 40 other pills and spends much of each meal shoving pills in her mouth along with food. She takes perhaps a dozen vitamins, lots of minerals and a few supplements as well as a probiotic. Not only do these additional "medications" cost a lot of money, everything I've read (and the doctor concurs) say that the possible interactions and adverse side effects far outweigh any possible benefits. At her next appointment, the doctor says he's going to go through her entire bag of "medications" and severely simplify what she takes. However, she will blow a fuse when this happens (she's convinced that all these things help her and believes the lady at GNC and elsewhere knows more about vitamins and supplements than doctors do). We will have to go through her cabinets and remove all the extra "medications" (on doctor's instructions) but there's nothing to stop her from ordering more on-line or simply loading her shopping cart when she goes to Wal-mart or GNC. How do we best deal with this challenge??
I don't know how you can keep your mom from ordering more supplements or buying them when she's out shopping but maybe you can convince her that taking that many over the counter medications is very, very dangerous.
Since her safety is definitely in jeopardy, I would proceed with taking away her ability to order meds on line and go out and purchase them. Do you have POA? She may not be responsible enough to handle credit cards.
I might get rid of the existing medications that are not prescribed. Still, that doesn't remedy her mistaking her regular meds. I would explore where she could move to that will administer her prescription meds or if a private company can come to her and provide that service. Maybe others here have experience with that. It involves them coming to her an giving her her meds on a daily basis. Does the AL she in offer that service?
In NC, every AL facility that I know of has that service.
Talking, begging, explaining rarely do any good with dementia patients. They simply can't reason anymore. Their brains don't allow them to use good judgment, so she can't be relied upon to change her ways.
Your MIL sounds a lot like my cousin. She was difficult to a point, but with the doctor's help, we were able to convince her to go into AL by telling her that she needed physical therapy to help with her mobility, her balance and her strength. And that she would get her medication regulated and good nutrition. She finally agreed to go as long as I kept her cat. She has no memory of any of that now.