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TAKE LIFE SERIOUSLY
This web page is designed by W. Diane Van Zwol R.N., B.A. (Honors), MA., Certified Counsellor and Web Designer.
'Dementia' is a very serious health problem that can affect us all. Here 'dementia', simply defined as 'a condition of deteriorated mentality', is considered from a light-hearted perspective, based upon actual experiences encountered by the author, as a registered nurse and others.
You Will Know That You Have 'Dementia'
When your wife tells you that she found you sitting on the floor, crying. You got up in the night to change your pyjamas and you could not get back to bed, because you put both legs into the same pantleg.
When you are told by your older brother, after he finds you out cold, that you stuck a kitchen paring knife into the wall plug to make toast.
When your children tell you that you must have stayed up all night, because you could not find your bedroom and were still looking for it, when they got up in the morning.
When you have to have someone rescue you because you tied your left shoe to your right shoe, with double knots and you cannot walk down the street properly.
When your adult children will not take care of you because you are no longer considered 'safe' to live with.
When your wife scolds you for pouring your cup of tomato soup into the bag of white wool which she is using to crotchet an afghan.
When you find yourself continually trying to climb up the stairs and the house in which you are living, does not have any stairs.
When your doctor finds out that you are always reading the same book upside down.
When your best friend comes to your home to visit you and you tell him that you only want to go home.
When your dog barks at you because you are eating his dog food, out of his dish on the floor.
When a neighbour finally tells you that this is not your house and that you live three blocks over, after you have been trying to use your key to unlock his door for the last two hours.
When you suddenly realize that you have a big, brown grocery bag full of bubble packs for your pills. The bubble packs have never been opened or used. In fact, the bottom of the grocery bag is full of loose pills too.
When the children next door tell you that their mother has instructed them 'to walk you' every day, because their dog died.
When a stranger who lives miles away, suddenly takes your hand and tells you that you have been repeatedly walking around the same block, since early morning and that she will help you to find your way home.
When your family members repeatedly come to your home to throw out all of your groceries, because they are no longer safe to eat.
When your grandaughter tells you that you are using her toothpaste for shampoo.
When the lawyer setting up your will, advises you to appoint the university as your 'beneficiary', because you cannot remember your family any longer.
....if you don't know by then, maybe you never will.
While life must be taken seriously, so much of the life of the elderly is lived purely in the imagination. Here is a piece of poetry for you to enjoy reading. This is written with respect to a long term nursing care experience with patient who
was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. I will simply refer to him as 'Jack'.
In Total Poverty of Mind
In total poverty of mind, the old man sits by the door,
Seemingly confused by the reality of the present,
While locked into some needless torments from the past.
He is alone, completly consumed by former passions,
Now long gone in time, but not yet fully erased
From the slowly shattering depths of his mind.
Startled by his own racing thoughts, in sudden panic,
He quickly jumps to his feet, almost falling over.
He momentarily climbs a non-existent broken stairwell,
Still so vividly fixed in his wandering imagination.
Reaching into a pocket, for a wallet that is not there,
He signals to his barber to keep the change, again.
His right hand touches the bristles of the new haircut
Forever etched into the recesses of his fading mind.
"Who are you? I don't know you! I want to go home!"
He cries out less and less frequently every day.
He is at home, but in his increasingly shallow mind,
Home is forever somewhere else, where he has been,
While in truth, perhaps he may never know home again.
He senses the dawn, alert to the sounds of the robins,
Opens the door and wanders down the quiet, dark street,
But now one which is no longer familiar to him.
He tugs on the leash of his long deceased dog.
"Let's go home, old scout," the neighbours watching
Hear the wanderer say, as he heads back to his home.
He sits down in the battered chair by the door,
As if waiting for the next time his dog wants out.
He stares off into space towards some abstract distance
Where life has kept his truncated mind tethered,
'No,' he cries out, but he finally gives in to despair
And closes his eyes, as if no one else is in his world
And no one to care, even if they did dwell there.
The happy child in him, it seems, was never truly there
And neither is he there now, or so it might seem,
While love still hovers, awake in the old man's soul,
Never to depart, even in his total poverty of mind.
...to be continued
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