Residents

Great post! My all time favorite was a woman who was nothing short of, well, colorful! She ran a brothel! She was 98 when she died in 2003. Eccentric hardly begins to explain! According to family and friends, she used to sew and make garments for her "ladies of the night". She slept on top of her bed spread, with her head where her feet should be. Always got dressed at night for the next morning, wore a fancy hat to bed, wore beautiful and flowy frocks. She ambulated with contact assist only until the day before she died. She was on one med only, a nitropatch, which she never needed based on parameter. She commented on our uniforms, and especially loved the flower patterns, referring to them as "lovely garments". She was 98 lb, 4'11. Her hair was shoulder length, gray, curly, and she spend hours fixing herself "for the show", and applied and re-applied the perfect color lipstick. She lifted up her dresses, removed her adult incontinence briefs, and..eased her nature wherever and whenever she saw fit..in the middle of the hallway, for example. What a gem. She will be never forgotten!

Do you know, I do a lot of it for families, I just realized. The residents I care about and keep comfortable but really, with rare exceptions, they're fine emotionally. It's the families who are wrecks and need TLC and interventions.

Great post! My all time favorite was a woman who was nothing short of, well, colorful! She ran a brothel! She was 98 when she died in 2003. Eccentric hardly begins to explain! According to family and friends, she used to sew and make garments for her "ladies of the night". She slept on top of her bed spread, with her head where her feet should be. Always got dressed at night for the next morning, wore a fancy hat to bed, wore beautiful and flowy frocks. She ambulated with contact assist only until the day before she died. She was on one med only, a nitropatch, which she never needed based on parameter. She commented on our uniforms, and especially loved the flower patterns, referring to them as "lovely garments". She was 98 lb, 4'11. Her hair was shoulder length, gray, curly, and she spend hours fixing herself "for the show", and applied and re-applied the perfect color lipstick. She lifted up her dresses, removed her adult incontinence briefs, and..eased her nature wherever and whenever she saw fit..in the middle of the hallway, for example. What a gem. She will be never forgotten!

Wow! That's all I can say LOL

Thanks, Schmoo! Ahaha! And the beauty of it is, everyone at the facility respected her individuality so she was allowed to remain true to herself. There was no suggestion of wearing a johnnie coat to bed, etc. A true beauty, even if we eventually had to replace a hallway carpet, or 2. :)

I am really starting to get attached to some of the residents/families even though I have only been there around a month. I see the light in their eyes when they see me in the morning. Even if one of my "favorites" is not my patient for the day I will stop for 20 seconds just to say hi to them. I treat the residents the same way I would want one of my family members to be treated if they were in the same position. I feel bad that I can't do more teaching. We have a rehab program at our facility so some of the residents will eventually leave. Today I spent 2 mins talking to a younger resident (upper 30s) about better snack choices. He seemed interested in what I had to say but I didn't really have much time.

I have a 90 year old guy that has a bikini calendar at the head of his bed. He shows it to anyone and everyone -- nursing, housekeeping, maintenance, VISITORS. Everyone used to try and at least keep it on the correct month but he won't allow anyone to change it because he loves Miss February. At least he's "faithful."

Also used to have a man that always woke up in the middle of the night and would start singing Christmas carols until he woke the other residents up. Didn't matter whether it was June or December -- Jingle Bells was always coming from his mouth.

Then there's my lady that is a former housekeeper. She always takes gloves and peri wipes from her room and wipes down EVERYTHING in sight. She's not limited to cleaning tables and chairs, either; apparently she's wiped down other residents a time or two.

One of my ladies eats 24/7. She'll sit there and eat junk food until she throws up. When she's done throwing up she wheels herself over to the cabinet, gets out some more chips/candy bars/cookies and eats until she pukes again. It's a never-ending cycle.

Another lady always uses concealer as her makeup -- she uses it as lipstick, blush, AND eyeliner. The family requested we let her do whatever she wants with it -- at least she's happy when she does it.

Lastly, there's a guy that always wears a baseball cap and sunglasses. ALWAYS. He even watches MTV on occasion. He must be trying to dress like Jay-Z.

She's not limited to cleaning tables and chairs, either; apparently she's wiped down other residents a time or two.

I just choked on my iced tea!

Coffeemate.....brilliant..I love it...ohhh I do! Just hearing about these precious people make my heart smile!

My fondest memory of LTC was a gentleman who had Parkinsons and was kinda quiet, I was a nursing assistant back then. It was New Years Eve and I went to put him to bed. I put my transfer belt on him and was telling about the date and how I always felt like every new year was a new begining. I told him I loved the song "Let old aquaintance..." and as I stood him up he put his arms around me in a dance position and we began to sing that song. We danced Parkinson's stlye and sang. At one point I told him I didn't know the rest of the words and he said, "No one does dear, but I love the dance." I helped him into bed and kissed his forehead goodnight. I will always feel love in my heart for that sweet old man. He went to heaven a few weeks later, but the thing I love most about LTC is the relationships we develop with our residents.

There is an 83 year old lady in my facility who makes my day. Her eyes light up when I enter her room, she gives me a hug every chance she gets and she tells me in her stroke-affected speech 'thank you for looking after me' and that I make her day better. I'm gonna miss her when she passes. :)

ok, so im the supervisor in the small facility, and one night (noc shift) i and another nurse are assisting this 98# soaking wet - dementia res. who barely makes sense ever. we are talking about the nurses love life, and i did not like her new beau. well, i said.. maybe you should try this or that. the little lady looks up at her and says, oh for heavens sake, get a life!" hysterical....

different facility, floor nurse position:

i am assisting a sister of the resident now, basic room things, and the res is in bed, young (60's) parkinsons.... the room is quite warm, the resident and i know eachother for 3+ years, so everyone is used to eachother. the sister remarks, "it is always so warm in here" i reply looking down at her older, but little brother.... well, if you dont cook them just right, they get a little chewy. especially the scrawny ones! the look on her face was priceless. he was laughing so hard... ahhh yeah.. good times.

so there is another resident on my sister unit who has no use of his arms. they hang limply by his side. sweet sweet man. the staff brought in canoli desserts.. and he hadnt had one in a long time, and sheepishly asked if it was ok. of course he needed to be fed. the nurse said, sure go to your room, and i will bring it in after lunch, so no-one else gets 'jealous' great. on the way into his room with a napkin wrapped in her hand, she says "you got lucky! last one!" crossing the threshold, she trips and the napkin goes flying, scoots on the floor under the bed. he is so devastated that he is leaning over looking at the spoiled napkin under the bed, arms hanging down(we took off the slings for lunch) looking like he is doing some sort of yoga... "no! no!!" he yells, the nurse are cracking up.... the canoli wasnt in the napkin, they were of course teasing. gave him 2 for his participation, and said... thats what you get for playing dead on the night shift!

oh, there are more..., ive been doing this for a long time.... thats why i'm...

sitcomnurse....

sometimes god turns on the sitcom nurse channel. its like comedy central for her.

I knew this would be a good idea!

One of my favorites is extremely agitated..yells, gets up out of her chair, and her mind goes faster than her mouth so her sentences are all garbled. She will lash out at most people who try to calm her down. I stop and say hi to her when I see her out in the hall and her face just lights up. They pass by with her and I see someone waving at me in the corner of my eye and its her waving and I make a big deal of her presence and she loves it.

Another one of my favorites is also a dementia patient who thinks she still lives at home. She gets up out of bed at night to turn all the lights off because of the electric bill. Another time during the day shift they were doing construction down the hall and she heard what sounded like knocking. I hear her say "Hold on I'll be right there" She goes to get up and her chair alarm goes off. I run over to her and make her sit back down and she said "Oh but theres someone at the door I have to answer the door".. She also drinks wine with dinner. I bought her wine to her one night and she said "Oh excellent." lol The whole room laughed.