I've had a couple things come up at work recently. Without going into too much detail, one resident was badly injured when he was in his 20s, and appears to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Then I found out about another resident who had something happen to her when she was a child and just had a hallucination related to it while she was in the hospital. When I heard about this one, I actually felt sick to my stomach. How terrible and horrifying that must have been!
Both of these incidents, particularly the second one, really got me thinking about my future...my distant future. What will I be like when I am old and alone? When my mind starts to go? What if I see a man who looks like my dad to me? Even though I won't be in any real danger, it won't feel like that if I have dementia.
I realize I'm more sensitive to his because of the demographic I work with, but it's a frightening thought. Worrying about it isn't going to benefit me any. But it does make me very empathetic to those residents. I can only imagine their fear and confusion.
The one hope I have is that (a), there is a lot of research going on to prevent and cure Alzheimer's Disease, as well as other forms of dementia. And (b), I am working very hard to deal with my past and work through it effectively. There is a good chance that the generation I am working with never got that opportunity. It was a very different world that they grew up in. Maybe it won't all come back up again for me.
Here's hoping!
Rachel
When I was working on the dementia floor at the nursing home I had those kind of fears, more because of my mom's childhood than my own. And I too hope that there are significant achievements with dementia and Alzheimer's.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you ever worked in a nursing home! What did you do? Did you enjoy it?
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