Dimple's Discoveries

I start a new rigorous work schedule this month: 7 days a week. Every week. Four days off this month. Can anyone say burnout? But I love what I'm doing :) It's worth it to keep the time flying by (and it keeps me from having to socialize like a normal human being too, which is always a bonus!) But I've been really tired lately, going to work has been a bit harder recently. I had lost sight of why I do what I do, but Heavenly Father always seems to find little ways to remind me, as He did this week. I was med tech for a Sunday graveyard, and I was tired. When I arrived I was told that one of our patients had refused food and water all day, and just been sleeping. Her time was coming. The patients always seem to know, and the decline usually happens rapidly. She wasn't expected to last more than a day or two, if she survived the night. The problem was that since her decline had happened so rapidly, we had no E-kit for her, (a kit of liquid Lorazepam and Morphine to...

We recently admitted a patient at the rehabilitation center I work at who has dementia. A few of the CNAs have started to be very impatient with him, as they haven't had a lot of experience with working with a patient who is losing their memory, especially one with such an advanced case as he has. He will start sentences and not be able to finish them. He panics when we try to transfer him because he doesn't understand or comprehend what we verbally tell him unless we repeat it several times. As a caregiver you have patients you can really get along with and patients you can't seem to click with at all, and this man has been one that I have really connected with. He reminds me a lot of another sweetheart I took care of years ago who died, and I miss her a lot, and so it's been a treat to be reminded of her when I'm working with him. Because of some work on his kidneys, he has had to frequently urinate, and it's not uncommon for him to need to go every 20...