There is never a dull moment when you work with dementia patients. Some have good short term memory, but can’t remember things from the distant past, while others have the memory of a goldfish and can’t remember something that happened 10 minutes ago. (It’s fun trying to convince an Alzheimer’s patient who is certain she is being starved to death that she just finished eating every bite of her dinner.)
Last night, one of my favorite patients, Louise, was desperately trying to get my attention as I was passing my supper time meds.
“Doc! Doc! I need you! Come over here!” (Louise, being of a certain generation, sees every man in medical scrubs as a doctor. There’s no use telling her I’m a nurse, I have been and always will be ‘Doc” to her.)
I stopped and stooped down next to her wheelchair and asked her what it was she needed.
“I need you to make an appointment for me to have my new glasses made! My mother said I needed new ones!”
I tried to explain to her that she didn’t wear glasses, that she could see just fine, but she was having none of it. Every time I walked past on my way to or from the dining room, she would call out for me to set up the appointment for the new glasses she didn’t need. Finally, I decided to humor her. Picking up the phone at the nurses station, I pretended to place a call, making sure to talk loud enough so that Louise could hear me.
I knew from experience that Louise would likely forget the whole thing in about 10 minutes any way, and wouldn’t know that today was Wednesday and that tomorrow was Thursday. Pretending to make the appointment was a quick way to make her happy and get on with my work.
“Hello? “ I said into the phone, “This is Doc. I need to make an appointment for Louise to have new eye glasses made. Thursday? Thursday afternoon at 2:30 PM? That will be fine!” I hung up from my “call” and turned to Louise. “It’s all set!” I told her. “We’ll go to the eye doctor on Thursday at 2:30!”
Louise smiled at me and said “OK! So we go tomorrow at 2:30. Today is Wednesday so tomorrow is Thursday right?”
Oh. Crap. So much for my bright idea.
I guess that little plastic castle wasn’t that much of a surprise for Louise.