I thought today I would give you an idea of what I do, well just for an hour everyday.
This is pretty typical of everyday since I have been here. The post arrives daily and my charge flips through it and it goes a bit like this..
Charge - What is this? in reaction to a grocery chain flyer.
Me - It is just an advertisement for the CO-OP telling you about their specials at the moment.
Charge - But I don't shop at the CO-OP I shop at Waitrose. Why are they sending this to ME, taken very personally, I don't want this, I don't shop at the CO-OP. Pause for about 1 minute. Why are they sending this wretched thing to me, I don't even know where the CO-OP is? I shop at Waitrose.
Me - Silence.
Charge - Who has now opened up a Christmas card. Who are these people? Do you know them? Can you read this? (I then read it to her). I don't know these people, why are they sending me Christmas cards? (Often the card has a charitable organisations name on it somewhere which causes much confusion for her). I don't know anybody at the Red Cross etc.
Me - I don't know
Chorus x 10 or however many times you can read the above in about 30mins.
I really do feel her frustration though, I this stage I feel sorry for her but I am beginning to understand why the agency changes the 'carer' every 2 to 3 weeks, for it is quite possible that somebody will pull their hair out or worse of course.
A few of you have asked my whereabouts, I am in a little town/village in Surrey but I won't tell you anymore than that in order to protect the guilty.
4 hours ago
8 comments:
Okay, I would not last more than about 25minutes. Actually more like 5 minutes.
And YOU KNOW I am not kidding.
Astounding that you can do this.
Oh I just love those carer 'horror' stories. Snork. I've had my share of them from my inlaws. The lastest one, is their current client has something called 'calling out syndrome' think of Tourettes on steroids. Apparently if he stops calling out something like 'YOU BASTARDS' for 5 minutes they rush in to check that he hasn't done himself in. They tried to take him on a drive to entertain him and apparently by the end of it my FIL was ready to drive straight into a wall.
Oh. My. Lord!!
Jo, I take my hat off to you dear... Clearly I'm definitely not cut out to be a carer, I would succumb to zimmer frame rage in a matter of minutes, bwahaha!
The scariest thing is - we are all headed in this direction... as my mom tells me all the time : "old age is not for sissies!"
Are you gonna last another 10 days?
I know it's very hard when you are stuck in it - but one day you will look back on this and see it as very,very funny!
I HATED my rotation on the Care Of Elderly Ward when I was doing it - but I look back on it now and remember only how very funny it was, and how much I used to laugh with my colleagues! Find people you can laugh with - IT HELPS!
I have some very, very funny stories, that I'm sure we will meet up one day and share...
VASBYT!! Thinking of you xx
She sounds just like my mother! I love my mother but OMG can she drive me crazy- everything is a conspiracy theory. I can only pray that it's not hereditary!
No words, really. I don't know that I could do it either.
Alzheimers is a scary scary thing! ... I think you're handling it the best way you can. Hang in there!
Jo, you have more patience than I thought humanly possible!! I feel for the old dear tho'. Hasn't she twigged that there is a reason for the changing of her carers so often?
Do the rest of her family live near by?
XX
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