Ok, are you ready for this? This is a moment I will never forget, especially now that I've typed it down. Sometimes working at elderly care facilities leads to some great stories. Here is a story I had to share with you all. Obviously for the sake of the patients involved and HIPPA, I will be giving them fake names. Also, this happened in like the past 8 months.
So one night while at work there was an incident. I'm honestly not surprised that it happened. I mean, what can someone expect when two dementia patients are put in the same room to sleep where their sun-downing can explode full steam! * Sun-downing: when a patient who has Alzheimers or dementia becomes more agitated, confused, angry, or combative only at night.*
We had Francine in bed, she actually is independent enough to put herself to bed no trouble for us. Side-note, most of my patients walk a bit slumped over if they're actually walking, so it's no surprise to me that Francine also walks a bit slumped over. Tonight she went to bed and then Patty, her roommate went to bed, but first Patty decided to figure out why all these people were in her house.
She marched over to Francine's bed and sat down on it and started to swear and curse at her. Francine, completely asleep, flew out of bed in terror! Streaked across her room, slightly hunched over and then booked it out of her room. By this time, anyone in range had come running.
"There's a woman in my bed!" She yelled. I honestly did not believe her at the time. I mean.... come on, she has dementia. Rude I know. But I appeased her and walked in to see the "woman" on her bed. And lo and behold there she was, Patty, crazy eyes, and all.
This is when I began, with a few other CNAs, to attempt to reason with Patty. She sat on the bed, her brow furrowed in deep anger and ranted, "Look at you! You're young." She points to a CNA and then points to a few others. "You're young! You're young! What are all you kids doing in my house!" she raged, "If your parents were here, would you be here?!"
I calmly replied, "Patty, we'd all be here. You invited us."
She didn't take the bait, "Like hell I did!" I guess letting her live in her reality wasn't going to work this time, but I still pressed on.
"Patty, you told us we could stay here. You told her...." pointing to Francine, "that she could stay here too and you're being rude to your guests."
She didn't care, but at least she got off Francine's bed, yelling once more, "Like hell I did!" She then decided to shoo us rough-ians out of her 'house'. Her little body, quickly shuffled across the floor, her arms flapped in the air at us, eyes bugged out of her incredibly wrinkled head. It was at this moment that I had to try really hard not to laugh as I dodged her frail, swinging arms. Eventually we just ignored Patty, and stayed out of her range. We went back and tried to convince Francine to go back to bed and that we'd do our best to keep Patty out of her side of the room. She listened. . . . although, she probably shouldn't have.
The hype calmed down for about 20 minutes. Francine was back in bed resting and Patty finally went to her bed to what we thought was sleep. We..... were wrong.
It turned out that Patty was not done tormenting her roommate. Francine ran out of her dark room again claiming this time that Patty was standing over her bed staring at her. Creepy!!!
"I don't have a roommate! What the *$%#@ is she doing in here!?" Patty shrieked.
"You had a roommate last night, you idiot, how can you forget that!?" Francine yelled at her. Ironic coming from her, the woman that forgets everything....just like her roommate.
Patty just gave Francine the look of death and starting incoherently yelling again.
"Francine, why don't we find you another room to stay in. That way you can sleep tonight and not be bothered by anyone," the nurse assured her. She put her arm around Francine and walked her down the dark hallway to another room. As we followed her, one of the CNAs turned around, drawing my attention to what he was looking at.
It was Patty, now standing in the dark doorway of her room at the end of the dark hallway. Hunched over. Insanely wrinkled. Crazy bug eyes. And silent. She slowly closed the door, peeking out until it closed entirely.
The CNA who looked back at her started laughing. It was contagious and soon we were all laughing! Mostly from being tired and easily amused. Seeing her close that door was straight out of a horror movie.
Francine was not amused. We tried to get her into another room, but she was not going to sleep with a roommate. After I left they put her in the empty doctors' office and let her sleep there.
Apparently Patty is not very good with roommates because since this incident. She has been moved three times. First time for terrorizing roommates. Second for stealing roommates belongings and hiding their stuff under her bed and the third for just plain being naughty.
oh man.... sometimes I love my job.
So one night while at work there was an incident. I'm honestly not surprised that it happened. I mean, what can someone expect when two dementia patients are put in the same room to sleep where their sun-downing can explode full steam! * Sun-downing: when a patient who has Alzheimers or dementia becomes more agitated, confused, angry, or combative only at night.*
We had Francine in bed, she actually is independent enough to put herself to bed no trouble for us. Side-note, most of my patients walk a bit slumped over if they're actually walking, so it's no surprise to me that Francine also walks a bit slumped over. Tonight she went to bed and then Patty, her roommate went to bed, but first Patty decided to figure out why all these people were in her house.
She marched over to Francine's bed and sat down on it and started to swear and curse at her. Francine, completely asleep, flew out of bed in terror! Streaked across her room, slightly hunched over and then booked it out of her room. By this time, anyone in range had come running.
"There's a woman in my bed!" She yelled. I honestly did not believe her at the time. I mean.... come on, she has dementia. Rude I know. But I appeased her and walked in to see the "woman" on her bed. And lo and behold there she was, Patty, crazy eyes, and all.
This is when I began, with a few other CNAs, to attempt to reason with Patty. She sat on the bed, her brow furrowed in deep anger and ranted, "Look at you! You're young." She points to a CNA and then points to a few others. "You're young! You're young! What are all you kids doing in my house!" she raged, "If your parents were here, would you be here?!"
I calmly replied, "Patty, we'd all be here. You invited us."
She didn't take the bait, "Like hell I did!" I guess letting her live in her reality wasn't going to work this time, but I still pressed on.
"Patty, you told us we could stay here. You told her...." pointing to Francine, "that she could stay here too and you're being rude to your guests."
She didn't care, but at least she got off Francine's bed, yelling once more, "Like hell I did!" She then decided to shoo us rough-ians out of her 'house'. Her little body, quickly shuffled across the floor, her arms flapped in the air at us, eyes bugged out of her incredibly wrinkled head. It was at this moment that I had to try really hard not to laugh as I dodged her frail, swinging arms. Eventually we just ignored Patty, and stayed out of her range. We went back and tried to convince Francine to go back to bed and that we'd do our best to keep Patty out of her side of the room. She listened. . . . although, she probably shouldn't have.
The hype calmed down for about 20 minutes. Francine was back in bed resting and Patty finally went to her bed to what we thought was sleep. We..... were wrong.
It turned out that Patty was not done tormenting her roommate. Francine ran out of her dark room again claiming this time that Patty was standing over her bed staring at her. Creepy!!!
"I don't have a roommate! What the *$%#@ is she doing in here!?" Patty shrieked.
"You had a roommate last night, you idiot, how can you forget that!?" Francine yelled at her. Ironic coming from her, the woman that forgets everything....just like her roommate.
Patty just gave Francine the look of death and starting incoherently yelling again.
"Francine, why don't we find you another room to stay in. That way you can sleep tonight and not be bothered by anyone," the nurse assured her. She put her arm around Francine and walked her down the dark hallway to another room. As we followed her, one of the CNAs turned around, drawing my attention to what he was looking at.
It was Patty, now standing in the dark doorway of her room at the end of the dark hallway. Hunched over. Insanely wrinkled. Crazy bug eyes. And silent. She slowly closed the door, peeking out until it closed entirely.
The CNA who looked back at her started laughing. It was contagious and soon we were all laughing! Mostly from being tired and easily amused. Seeing her close that door was straight out of a horror movie.
Francine was not amused. We tried to get her into another room, but she was not going to sleep with a roommate. After I left they put her in the empty doctors' office and let her sleep there.
Apparently Patty is not very good with roommates because since this incident. She has been moved three times. First time for terrorizing roommates. Second for stealing roommates belongings and hiding their stuff under her bed and the third for just plain being naughty.
oh man.... sometimes I love my job.
2 comments:
Ah... Oddly enough, I kinda miss that place! :)
I love these stories.... I can picture it in my mind and see it vividly. It is almost fun to try and step into their "reality" for a minute... oh the joy of working with these people. Just think if we are lucky some day it will be us!! LOVE YA
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