Pedicures for the elderly?

Hey there!  Welcome to Caring's community!  I'm glad you posted.

I've not had experience with this, so take this post with a grain of salt.  However, do you think your dad would be up for a trip to the salon?  Does he have any health issues that would make doing this a concern (such as diabetes)?  If he's up for it and there aren't any big concerns, go for it!

What's the deal with his feet?  Overgrown toe nails?  Rough skin? 

If you want to give it a try yourself, get him to soak his feet in a tub of warm water and mild soap for 15 minutes.  Get a pummice stone and gently rub away at the rough areas.  Then cut his nails.  However, with this all said, there are just some tasks that tough for some and not for others.  If this is one that tests your gag reflex, have a professional do it.  :-)

When my father was sick the visiting nurse recommended a local podiatrist that made house calls.  He came every 2-3 months and cut the nails and checked other aspects of the feet.  It was wonderful not to have to worry about it myself.

Now my mother is at home alone and can't get out herself.  She uses the same doctor.  Besides the value of having him come to the house, it gives her some element of control.  She can call and schedule the visit herself without having to check with me to see if I'm available to take her somewhere. 

how nice it is to wake up to this note.  thanks for sharing your experience with me.  And timely.  I had brought up this little excursion to get our nails done (toe nails) with my 83 year old father 2 weeks ago.  His response was cautious enthusiasm.  "Is it a little bit girlish?" he asked me .  I admitted that it was and we laughed (so far - all good: enthusiasm, laughing).  He said he'd think about it (this too is good - anything new is good for his relatively boring life now). 

Well - he called yesterday and said, "OK, let's do the thing."  So - on Saturday we're off to do the thing."  I'll let you know.  I'll be happy if he has a moment to relax and or laugh.

If it doesn't work out - now I know I can contact a podiatrist. I wonder if Kaiser would do it? 

You could also tell him that in other cultures, foot care is big. I have friends who are German - and there are places in the Alps where you walk through cold water, over rocks to stimulate your feet. And, there are foot care places - not salons - where you go to take care of your feet.

Maybe you can look for a place that's more functionally minded?

I don't know about Kaiser, but I do know that smart doctors realize how important foot care is (there was a New Yorker article [newyorker.com] about a geriatricians who care a lot about their patients feet).

This has turned out to be a fantastic discussion!  I can't wait to hear how your dad's pedi goes, Lolly!  Please come back and update us!

I don't know about Kaiser but my mother's costs are covered by Medicare and her supplemental insurance.  Once she has reached her overall annual deductible, she doesn't pay anything for the podiatrist.

We did it.  Dad got a full on pedicure (no color - although we tried to get him to choose a lovely lavender) AND it was great.  He really needed it!  AND, he enjoyed it. 

After the initial weird feeling about sitting in a pink room, with dusty artificial flowers and old posters of roses and lace - he settled into the warm tub for his feet.

She told him of other men she did pedicures for regularly, and how "my, you really needed this."  He  loved the massage, and was so pleased with his  feet.    Our new plan - every 6 weeks!  I don't know why we waited. 

Knowing dad, he'll now also check in with Kaiser to see if he can get it done there.  He's sold.  And it was fun to do something so different with him.

Lolly, that's fantastic!  Thank you so much for coming back to update us!  I'm sure your experience is really going to help others out.  Kudos to you for being creative in finding a solution for your dad and kudos for him for being open-minded!  I'm so happy for you that it worked out so well!

The lady I took care of ,previous to my current alzheimers lady, used to go to a podiatrist to have her toenails clipped and taken care of.  It was paid for by medicare and her supplemental insurance.  We would sit in the doctor's office for usually over an hour, she was 100 yrs old, she would carry on about having to wait soooo long, then we would get into see the doctor, they would have  lovely chat, he would spend about 10 minutes and we would be on our way.  The nails didn't look much better than when we went in.  Soooo, I started to give her pedicures at home, I would fix her a nice cup of warm tea and get one of those long black files(from Walmart, cost about $1) and proceed to sand down her nails and the bottom of her crusty feet.  Looked pretty good by the time we were done and it saved a hassle.