My mom is ninty nine had a stroke four years ago she has a dementia but not really bad. She knows who her family are and I can read the paper to her. My mom is in a care home and I go every night to see her but lately mom has been saying that her face is hurting her. She used to suffer with trygemanal nuralger but when I told the nurse, she said your mom never said anything about it in the day?
I think the nursing home staff though we were crazy! My mom had pretty severe arthritis, compression fractures in her spine and sometimes headaches. The combination of aphasia and vascular dementia, both results of a stroke seemed to have robbed her of the ability to express when she was in pain, and where the pain was.
My solution to this was to have her on regular pain relief ( tramadol) on a regular basis and Tylenol as needed if she was grimacing in what looked like pain. It seemed to work.
It's fine to talk to her nurse on the spot, but an overarching problem like this is best addressed at a care meeting. Then, follow up and make sure that new pain med orders have been written.
Be aware that an order for a med "prn" is not a regularly scheduled dose. Patient must request or nurse must ask and receive a positive response to "are you in pain?". No one wants to be accused of overmedicating an elderly patient, so if your mom says "No, I'm fine" to the nurse, she is not able to give the med unless it is scheduled. It took me 6 months to figure that out!
Having POA doesn't make her GOD. If mom wants pain relief, have her ask for it in the nurse's presence. Can mom do that?
And why would being on antibiotics have ANYTHING to do with pain relief?
"For the last x weeks, my mother has consistently complained of pain in her face when I visit her during the evenings. In [20xx] she was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia. Please investigate a possible recurrence of this problem."
Unfortunately, as I remember from when my poor FIL was suffering, this sort of pain is difficult to relieve. But you'll have done what you can.
You can also get heat pads that she might possibly find comforting? Try it. They're little cushion things, stuffed with bran and sometimes lavender, and you warm them in the microwave (I'm sure the nurses can let you use the microwave if you ask them really nicely) following the instructions carefully so that they don't overheat.