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I even love the dementia and ALZ patients that ask you a million times a day what time it is, what should I be doing, what day it is, and why can't I go home? Heartbreaking to hear and watch, but also such a feeling of love and nurturing comes up in me when they do these things that they cannot help. A lot of nurses get angry or frustrated over it and those folks are in the wrong profession or wrong job, because that's the whole job....laughter through tears, but you have to do it quietly on the inside.
My mother just asked me if she took Aricept if it would help her memory because someone else she was talking to was taking it and it really helped her memory. So, I said, "Well, let's look up the side effects of Aricept." Sure enough, all the side effects were things we are already trying to overcome in her life anyway....lack of appetite, slow heartbeat, more stomach acid, not sleeping well, feeling tired, muscle cramps, etc.
ME: "Now what do you want to accomplish here? Maybe have less memory issues when you are 79 years old, but add to a lot of physical issues we are already dealing with~or~just accept you are 79 and are allowed to be forgetful on things and that the natural progression of your life is going to continue to contribute to that problem...and that's okay. You are allowed to forget things. That's why you have me here to help you as you age gracefully and naturally."
SHE: "Nope...not taking Aricept."
Last year she went to a doctor for the first time in many a long year and only because she had been in a car accident and broke her ribs. She's in pain and they take her blood pressure..it's slightly elevated. And I do mean slightly. The doc immediately says she wants to put her on blood pressure medicine "just a low dose" for this. So, again I had to explain that the blood pressure will be elevated when one is in pain, one reading does not indicate a pattern of high BP and that we should hold off on this and just see how her BP does when she is not in pain.
Sure enough....no BP problems. Never has had any and when the pain was managed, never had it again. Thank God she has me here to help her.
She is of the generation that obeys doctors as an authority but, thankfully, she also has grown suspicious enough of their quackery to take responsibility for her own health and it has really paid off. Now that she is slowing down some and age related issues have come around more frequently, she is now more vulnerable and open to their suggestions....which is why I believe God has placed me here to help her navigate these dangerous waters.
