down and out

I hate getting that one call at work, the call that I know will eventually happen at least once a month. “I can’t make it to work tonight” The call from the nurse who works swing shift. We don’t have an on-call nurse. My sister,”soccer mom” many months ago was our on call nurse. She whimped out on us because working with Alzheimers patients was a bit too much work for her. She has a nice cushy job at a non-profit agency. I will have to work swing shift today and than go back at 0630 to start it all over again. I live one block away from work. So I was allowed to go home for a couple of hours. My patients are without a nurse until 1630. I have my phone near by in case something too drastic happens.

I have passed all morning and lunch meds, did all my treatments: eye drops, penis creams, leg ointments, inhalers. I don’t have any patients with diabetes, so there are no blood sugar testings. It does save me a few minutes in the am. My only patient concern is “Fanny” she is 107 years old. She has pneumonia. Her daughter was in today as she is in everyday at lunch time to be with her mother. She doesn’t want me to get an order for hospice she thinks Fanny will bounce back. This time, Fanny will not bounce back. Pneumonia can be very deadly especially for a person Fanny’s age.

I don’t want to live to be 100 or 90, I don’t want to be turned every two hours and wear garment protectors. I don’t want to end up with dementia like my patients. Hopefully, there will be a cure for Alzheimers Disease. The other day I got a call from a lady who wanted to go on a tour of the facility. She asked if she could bring her husband with her since he had dementia. She explained how difficult it was to take care of him at home. It really is a 25 hour a day job. We scheduled an 11am appointment. I was not fully prepared for the dismay that would later hit me like a stack of bricks. I’m so used to having patients with Alzheimers Disease usually in their late 70’s – 90’s. The wife was a good 10 years younger than me and holding a beautiful baby in her arms, trailing behind was her very sheepishly husband about the same age as his wife. She explained to me that her husband has a very progressive case of Picks Disease. I have studied about this disease but this was the first time I actually met someone with this awful disease–in my opinion much worse than AD. She is a very strong women. I need to remember to count my blessing each day. My life is so good compared to others.

One of my caregivers worries about how she is going to feed her children. She even stated that they would be better off being adopted out. Her ex husband hasn’t paid child support in 10 years. How do you go about helping someone like this. I’m so worried about her and her children. I found out that she lives in a small 5th wheel trailer. What can I do to help. If only she could go to school and get an education to get a better paying job. God please help her or use me in some way??