Today's Funny

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I work with Dementia and Alzheimer's on a daily basis, I have to laugh...if I don't I cry. Crying caregivers are not good caregivers. And if you think I laugh AT my patients, you have another think coming.

My family goes with the flow with the goofy stuff that comes out of my grandmother's mouth. Instead of correcting her and causing her stress, they just agree with her and keep her smiling.

We're lucky, she still has some lucid moments. Last week my aunt took her out to lunch, she told the waitress that she was 51, my aunt just giggled and told the waitress "she looks good doesn't she" which made my grandmother very happy. I responded to my aunt "well the good news is that she's finally admitting to being in her 50's", she's 91...:LOL:

She's (hopefully) coming to the wedding and she's quite excited. Who knows how lucid she'll be, but she'll be happy to be around so many people. She's quite the celebrity at her assisted living center.
 
I work with Dementia and Alzheimer's on a daily basis, I have to laugh...if I don't I cry. Crying caregivers are not good caregivers. And if you think I laugh AT my patients, you have another think coming.

Believe me, I don't. But my heart breaks every time I am faced with it. There is a couple in Winthrop. The husband was the first patient. He goes there every day because it was getting to difficult for his wife to care for him 24/7. Now she too is an Alzheimer patient. And he doesn't even know her anymore. He has progressed to where he is in the section behind locked doors. And each morning when the van brings her, she heads straight for that door so she can spend her days with him. This couple are in their 80's and have been married for more than 50 years. On weekends when there is no daycare for the wife, she stays with her daughter and they both spend their weekend visiting the husband.

You know PF, when I worked at the Revere Mem. Hosp. sometimes auto crash victims were brought in DOA as to the closest hospital and needed a doctor to make the pronouncement. You stand back and bring down that veil that stands between you and the family as they say their last goodbyes. I even was able to wrap up stillborn babies with an attitude of professionalism. But for some reason I can't seem to do that when it comes to Alzheimer's. I think it is the cruelest joke God has played on mankind. It is a disease that destroys all hope for the future of its victims. :angel:
 
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Way before they were cool...:ermm:
 
:( I am sorry. I just can never find humor in anything that even remotely addresses Alzheimer's. I see it at it very worst every time I go to Winthrop. :angel:

Over here on the radio lately, we are hearing about several new things they have found that can cause Alzheimer's...one is sugar and the other is if you used to binge drink as an adolescent....apparently, with the binge drinking in your youth, that can effect you before you even reach 65 years of age

I am a bit concerned now, as I was one of those teenage binge drinkers...I knew there was the possibility it may come back to haunt me :ermm:

I have also recently heard that by having 2 cups of hot chocolate or hot cocoa a day can help put off the effects of the disease...it is something to do with the cocoa
 
My family goes with the flow with the goofy stuff that comes out of my grandmother's mouth. Instead of correcting her and causing her stress, they just agree with her and keep her smiling.

We're lucky, she still has some lucid moments. Last week my aunt took her out to lunch, she told the waitress that she was 51, my aunt just giggled and told the waitress "she looks good doesn't she" which made my grandmother very happy. I responded to my aunt "well the good news is that she's finally admitting to being in her 50's", she's 91...:LOL:

She's (hopefully) coming to the wedding and she's quite excited. Who knows how lucid she'll be, but she'll be happy to be around so many people. She's quite the celebrity at her assisted living center.

They say some of the best things. So much fun when patients are just confused and out there, sad when they become angry and aggressive, but usually we can get them to enjoy most of their day.

I'd much rather be demented or have Alzheimer's than have a stroke and be unable to speak or make my needs known.
 
Believe me, I don't. But my heart breaks every time I am faced with it. There is a couple in Winthrop. The husband was the first patient. He goes there every day because it was getting to difficult for his wife to care for him 24/7. Now she too is an Alzheimer patient. And he doesn't even know her anymore. He has progressed to where he is in the section behind locked doors. And each morning when the van brings her, she heads straight for that door so she can spend her days with him. This couple are in their 80's and have been married for more than 50 years. On weekends when there is no daycare for the wife, she stays with her daughter and they both spend their weekend visiting the husband.

You know PF, when I worked at the Revere Mem. Hosp. sometimes auto crash victims were brought in DOA as to the closest hospital and needed a doctor to make the pronouncement. You stand back and bring down that veil that stands between you and the family as they say their last goodbyes. I even was able to wrap up stillborn babies with an attitude of professionalism. But for some reason I can't seem to do that when it comes to Alzheimer's. I think it is the cruelest joke God has played on mankind. It is a disease that destroys all hope for the future of its victims. :angel:

But Addie, it sounds like you are censuring me for laughing instead of crying over something that has been a VERY large impact on my life. It was Alzheimer's Patients that made me want to go into nursing. And even they will tell you that laughter is the best and sometimes only way to cope.
 
My family goes with the flow with the goofy stuff that comes out of my grandmother's mouth. Instead of correcting her and causing her stress, they just agree with her and keep her smiling.

We're lucky, she still has some lucid moments. Last week my aunt took her out to lunch, she told the waitress that she was 51, my aunt just giggled and told the waitress "she looks good doesn't she" which made my grandmother very happy. I responded to my aunt "well the good news is that she's finally admitting to being in her 50's", she's 91...:LOL:

She's (hopefully) coming to the wedding and she's quite excited. Who knows how lucid she'll be, but she'll be happy to be around so many people. She's quite the celebrity at her assisted living center.

Endearing, Bakechef!

Having worked at the local nursing home when I was a teen, I remember the sweet old gal who would strip naked and gleefully run out the side door through the wheat field (we always caught her), old Wild Billl, who had a "surprise" for any pretty young thing he would happen to brush up next to, and many others who I was entrusted to feed and help. I loved them all.
 
They say some of the best things. So much fun when patients are just confused and out there, sad when they become angry and aggressive, but usually we can get them to enjoy most of their day.

I'd much rather be demented or have Alzheimer's than have a stroke and be unable to speak or make my needs known.

+1...
 
I have a neighbour who doesn't think pirates are funny at all. She's retired and when she vacations it is usually as a nurse with Doctors Without Borders or as a nurse on a freighter. She has fought off pirates twice since I've known her.

I agree that real pirates aren't funny. The captain of that ship captured a year or two ago is from somewhere up here in MA or NH or something. Even if you didn't know him you were still concerned for his safety and that of his crew. But cartoon pirates are cute, right? And make-believe ones, like the folks that founded "Talk Like A Pirate Day".

I have total admiration for your friend who "vacations" by ministering to others. She's a good one.
 
They say some of the best things. So much fun when patients are just confused and out there, sad when they become angry and aggressive, but usually we can get them to enjoy most of their day.

I'd much rather be demented or have Alzheimer's than have a stroke and be unable to speak or make my needs known.

For us it's sad, but for her it may be the best thing. She's always dreaded getting old, she's never looked or acted her age. My family has previous experience with Alzheimers so that helps. Her assisted living is a very good place, in the town that she grew up in, so when she had to move there, there were lots of familiar faces. It's also a nursing home/skilled care facility for when she needs more care, so the transition should be easy.
 
Endearing, Bakechef!

Having worked at the local nursing home when I was a teen, I remember the sweet old gal who would strip naked and gleefully run out the side door through the wheat field (we always caught her), old Wild Billl, who had a "surprise" for any pretty young thing he would happen to brush up next to, and many others who I was entrusted to feed and help. I loved them all.

During my junior year in high school, I would take care of my great grandmother over night. My grandmother (the one now in assisted living) didn't want to put her mother in a nursing home, so she would hire a day nurse, she would stay with her in the evening then either me or my brother would spend the night with her. Many an evening I'd get woken by her scuffing around, totally naked....:ohmy: Or I'd wake up to her playing the piano at 2 am. At this point she really didn't know who anyone was except her daughter, but she never forgot how to play that piano. When she finally went to the nursing home, the family donated the piano to the home and she continued to play. She stayed mobile, on her feet until she was 98, she died at 99.
 
Alzheimer's is harder on family and loved ones than it is on the victim. That being said...I'm on my way to work, a place where I am a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter to many folks who love me just because I am there. And I love them all whether they have been streaking in the halls or they are having a bad day. At the end of my day I get to come home, they OTOH live there.
 
Alzheimer's is harder on family and loved ones than it is on the victim. That being said...I'm on my way to work, a place where I am a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter to many folks who love me just because I am there. And I love them all whether they have been streaking in the halls or they are having a bad day. At the end of my day I get to come home, they OTOH live there.

People like you are heroes to me, PF. I've had more than my share of nursing care and the good ones are a treasure.
 
Alzheimer's is harder on family and loved ones than it is on the victim. That being said...I'm on my way to work, a place where I am a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter to many folks who love me just because I am there. And I love them all whether they have been streaking in the halls or they are having a bad day. At the end of my day I get to come home, they OTOH live there.
+1
Dementia of all kinds is very hard on the family. I live with the fear that I will be like my mom s/day.
 

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