"HELP ME, JOHN!"

You know it's going to be a long night at work, when you are a nurse and the nurse you are relieving starts her report with "Thank God you are finally here!"  That lets me know right away that her day has not been good and she is ready to run as far away, as fast as she possibly can.

Well my report started that way last night.  The nurse I was getting report from started her report that way then continued to tell me how her patience was runny thin.  She had been caring for an elderly woman (whom I would now be caring for, for the next 12 hours), who continued to yell out all day long.  Mostly she just yelled the word "HELP!", occasionally changing it up a bit to, "HELP ME!".  Every so often she would even add a name to this, "HELP ME, JOHN!"  Interesting thing is, no one, not even her family knew who John was.  We couldn't get John if we wanted to.  Her husband and children all said they didn't know anyone named John.  Hmmm. . . .

This poor lady, I thought, at the beginning of report.  She's just confused, someone just needs to spend a little time with her.  See, the lady pretty  much just knew her name (and John's of course). She had no idea who most of her family was, no idea she was in the hospital, just knew her name and that of John.  The problem was that, she would yell, I would go, and she would continue to yell.  I would ask her what she needed and she couldn't tell me.  I gave her pain medicine (just in case), I helped her reposition in bed to be more comfortable, I offered her a drink, I offered her food.  I turned on the TV to play quiet music so she wouldn't feel so alone.  I even sang to her!  (POOR THING!) 

About 8 hours into my shift my patient care tech and I were taking turns responding to her yells.  We were both starting to feel the same way the previous nurse had felt.  There was nothing we could do to make her stop yelling.  Nothing we could do to console her.  It leaves a nurse feeling pretty helpless and I'm sure the patient was feeling a little that way too.

Then something happened. . . . . .about 4am she became so aggravated because no one was coming to her room quiet quick enough after she yelled "HELP ME!"  As I was walking down the hallway toward her room I no longer heard her yelling those words.  I had to stop for a minute and giggle, because instead what I heard coming from her room was, "H-E-L-P   M-E!"  She had given up on yelling and began spelling it.  When I walked into her room, she looked at me with a surprised look on her face and said very matter of factually, "I CAN spell!"  She had the biggest smile on her face, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud a little. 

I did my routine, drink, reposition, talk, sing, tuck her back in, hold her hand, and to my surprise after she remembered she could spell she slept for the rest of my shift!  The whole THREE hours that I had left.

We still don't know who John is, but we do know this sweet lady can spell!

How I do love dementia patients!