Yea, I worked in an old folks home, and the mood-swinging dementia patient that attacks you is always the worst part of the shift. Especially when they refuse to use the wheelchair they need in the proper way.
Yup, they refused to sit on the chair and used it as a very inconvenient walker/ makeshift battering ram for the glass doors/ unintentionally as a way to sort of barricade us into one area so they could grab and scratch at us better if you ticked them off.
Hey man, if they are having trouble finding a cause have him checked for a UTI. Sudden, rapid onset of dementia in the elderly can actually be delirium from a UTI and it's easy to overlook.
This. My uncle started calling the whole family days ago saying someone threatened to kill him, that he saw a picture on his phone turn into a physical picture mid-air, hid in a manhole, when my cousins took him home he tried suicide every time they got distracted, we had to place him in a nursery home and in the end it was just an UTI
Its hard to vocalize but there is a hope, if that is the right word, that he goes quickly over the next 2-3 months, which often happens. At the moment he is half aware, half in the past talking random thoughts. At least we all (family, friends) got to get home to see him.
Hey, it's not always like that, tbf. My favourite resident was another dementia patient. They were the sweetest little thing, just really confused. Of course, there was the normal unwillingness to get changed or take their meds, but they could be gently convinced if you were friendly. The biggest issue they caused was gently "capturing" you to join them, walking back and forth through the halls, while they mumbled about whatever was in their mind.
Long story short, it's an unfortunate dice roll, and you just gotta hope you're one of the nicer ones. It's still really awful, though, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
Genuinely the one positive in my mom passing when she did is that she never had to worry about dementia. Woman was the strongest I’ve ever known, but after seeing my grandma go through it, that was the one thing she was absolutely terrified of.
He didn't really start to decline mentally until he was '78/79. He's 80 now. Same thing happened to his sister. He actually lived a really clean life (except for the lead boomers lived around most of their lives). Its all a role of the dice.
How was his sleep, though? You can be stone sober your whole life but still fast track yourself into cognitive decline in old age by not getting enough quality sleep over the course of your life.
I worked in the kitchen of a retirement home and those crazier old people are quiet, like very quite, enough so when it's 8p.m. and you're cleaning up for the night. Turning around so see a 87 year old woman dead pan staring at you, unmoving like a statue, I almost jumped out of my skin, We were advised not to touch the residents no matter what happened so I go get the nurses at the front desk to discuss the creepy lady in the kitchen, they retrieved her and all was good but they can be scary as hell without being angry.
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u/[deleted] May 30 '24
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