Specialties Geriatric
Published Sep 30, 2012
I just listened to this for 12 hours- almost literally non-stop. I just felt the urge to put it in an online forum full of nurses who may sympathize with my numb brain. God Bless Alzheimer's.
lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN
940 Posts
Used to have a lady who would alternately scream "God bless America!" and "Help me do the dishes!" She would get the phrases mixed up and start yelling "God bless the dishes!" Hysterical.
serenidad2004
119 Posts
When I worked LTC I had one that would repetitively recite the lords prayer while rubbing her hair... all day long. If she was interupted she would pick up where she left off. It made for a long day and I would often go home reciting it myself lol.
God bless their souls
DizzyLizzyNurse
1,024 Posts
We had a lady who kept yelling, "Help me! Help me! Help me!" One of our supervisors tried to get her to say something "a little more pleasant". She tried to get her to say, "Mary had a little lamb"...which the woman repeated over and over....until it became "Mary had a little man, Mary had a little man"...."Mary had a mailman, Mary had a mailman"...."Mary had a man, Mary had a man." Another resident then yelled, "Well good for Mary then!"
Oh, our poor patient who was a nurse..."Call the pharmacy! Call the pharmacy! I've made an error! Call the pharmacy!"Oh, dear god!Even in dementia there is no reprieve!
"Call the pharmacy! Call the pharmacy! I've made an error! Call the pharmacy!"
Oh, dear god!
Even in dementia there is no reprieve!
My worst nightmare.
I took care of a lady who thought she was on vacation on a cruise. Every day lol. She thought she was sitting at the captain's table during meals. It was so cute! I hope if I get dementia I think I'm on vacation every day!
*4!#6
222 Posts
These dementia stories are cracking me up and bringing back fond memories! I miss LTC and geriatrics so much!
LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM
1,654 Posts
We have a former DON patient who is a high fall risk, especially overnight ,so the nurses give her a clipboard and she goes along for the med pass. She will make notes about the job the nurses do and also which patients she feels the doctor needs to come see.
This is adorable! I mean it's really sad, but it's so great that the nurses got creative with her and kept her happy overnight.
teeniebert, LPN
563 Posts
I took care of a lady who came to LTC for rehab after hip replacement. Her kids chose the facility because it was close to her old home, and her sister-in-law already lived there on the memory care unit. Well, this lady was much more demented than the family had realized, wanting to go home every night and calling all of her kids wanting to know when they were picking her up, and trying to get out to walk home (she knew WHERE she was, and it was only about 2 miles from 'home', but she couldn't remember WHY she was there)...when she was discharged from PT/OT, she moved into the memory care unit and roomed with her sister-in-law. It turns out that they used to take weekend trips together in their 30s and 40s, just to get out of the house and away from the kids for a couple days. Now they're on an extended trip and this hotel is so nice and isn't it great that our husbands take care of the kids/houses while we're gone and oh dinner was so good last night I wonder what they'll serve for breakfast...their world is beautiful.
sharpeimom
2,452 Posts
My grandmother who had advancing Parkinson's eventually had to move from our house into a
skilled nursing facility. We were fortunate to get her a private room.
Down the hall, lived a very very old Jewish lady who, in her demented state, no longer remembered
any English. She could only manage a few words of German (sometimes) and Yiddish. Mimi would
wander and screamed or called nonstop. Usually, it was garbled and made no sense.
Grandma had been a German professor. She'd call out to Mimi in German, giving her simple directions
to get back "home" (to her room.) Grandma would count the rooms: "Eins...Zwei...Drei...Vier...until
Mimi was at her door. Always, Mimi would call, "Danke!"
Mimi loved to "go to the market" and would usually find treasures in other residents' rooms, which staff
would quietly return.
If Mimi would awaken in the night, she'd call out, "Mary! Mary! We're late to the shops!" If grandma
were awake, she'd answer (in German) "It's all right, Mimi. We have nearly an hour before they open."
Mimi would settle down and sleep.
Amber Lynn
41 Posts
This makes me laugh! I am a charge nurse on a dementia unit. Out of our 28 patients, only two call out repetatively.
The one is a female patient on hospice who is practically bed bound now. All day..."Help me honey! Help me up. Put me to bed. Help me up!"......while she is in bed. 85 lb woman who Ativan and oxycodone sometimes does the trick for a little while. But only for a short period of time.
Next is a male patient who will count repetatively and he misses numbers. It's cute, but he annoys the other residents sometimes lol.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11"
"1, 2, 3, 4......."
Gotta love dementia! Takes a special person to be able to tolerate it.
pfeliks
50 Posts
Instead of telling demented patients to Sush! the babies are sleeping! We give them life-like baby dolls to hold. It works like a charm. A good NON pharmacological interventions. We refer to them as comfort dolls.
echoRNC711, BSN
227 Posts
BrandonLPN, LPN
3,358 Posts
I used to give the confused little old ladies who wander at night baskets of linens to fold.