My job is to stay awake all night long to care for my lady at a nursing home. The patients are in extensive nursing care and are at the first stages of dementia.
Yesterday, I went to work from 3pm to 7am this morning. At 3 AM this morning, my lady woke up asking me in the clearest voice, "Are you awake?" "Yes." I said. "Are you awake?"
"I lost the metallic things," said my lady, as she pointed at a hole in her bed rails. I knew she was in her own world. When I walked over to her medical bed, she showed me an empty space between rails. "I put them right here," she said, "and they're lost. I want to go look for them."
I told her we'd look for them in the morning, but that answer didn't suffice. I didn't know what to do, so I talked to a tech in the hallway. Tech Curley told me how last night, Bill called her into his room to eat some fried chicken with him. She asked where it was, and he said, "Have some. It's on the end of the bed." Suprised, she asked, "Which piece should I get?" He said, "The leg right there." She went to where he was pointing, picked up the imaginary chicken leg, sat on the edge of the bed and "ate" as they chatted about how good the chicken leg was.
Curley said, when she finished, she put the imaginary dish away, and tucked him back under the covers to get some sleep. Ironically, 2:30am is lunch time for the night staff, and Curley left wanting a chicken leg.
Another day, another chicken leg.
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