yes, this really happened, mind you, we try to joke and have a good time with my patient, he has one wicked sense of humor, so we get along quite well in that respect. Most nights while doing hs care are very light-hearted and full of jokes and one-liners on both our ends. I try to keep his spirits up, as he can do nothing for himself, and this seems to give him a bit of control over a situation in which he has very little of that.
so, the other night, while getting his hs care taken care of with the aide assisting, all of us laughing, joking making it a good time for the him, I asked him how it is I can always manage to have everything done and lights out by 0100, and "you almost never wake up at night for me".... immediately, that wicked sense of humor of his kicked in, he looked me straight in the eye and mouthed to me (as he was off Passey-Muir) "because you're a sleep-nazi!"
(his other night nurses can't seem to get lights out much before 0230)
He was joking, of course, because that's the sense of humor he has (which is great)
I told him, hey, you don't get enough sleep most nights, and the way I see it, I get paid to make sure you sleep at night (and he agreed)
Of course the next night when I came in, I just had to tell his Mum,"hey, did your son tell you what he called me last night?", proceeding to relay the conversation from the night before, and the patient looking at his Mum, "I was just joking. I was just joking" and Mum of course, nearly choked on her coffee, she was laughing so hard! ( she agrees with me wholeheartedly on his lack of sleep on nights I'm not there)
Dad laughed even harder when he found out.
I am so glad to be able to joke around with my patient and have a good time with him
Now the running joke when I walk in the door every night to work is "Hey *****, your sleep nazi is here!"
