ALZHEIMER'S BLOGGING:

Picture this; It is one am in the morning and someone wakes you up to tell you it is time to go home. You are 67 yr old male and not even sure where you are at. I went to the hospital to pick up this patient, in the middle of the night. I was told this patient was agitated so the nursing home decided to send him in an ambulance to the hospital with directions to give him something to calm him down. When he got to the hospital he was sound asleep, and slept the whole time until we got there to wake him up to bring him back. As I looked over his medication list the second drug on there was aricept. Right away I knew he had Alzheimer's. The nurse came to give me a report and handed me a script for ativan when he gets aggravated. This lovely man had such a great smile as we tried to get him to stand up and walk over to our gurney. He did not understand what we wanted and with our help we got him seated and covered up with blankets. Than the nurse gave me a sheet of paper for the nursing center on how to take care of an Alzheimer's and Dementia patient. I found this a little humorous, since many families put their loved ones with this disease in these homes. Any response to this?

Sincerely,
Marie Fostino
Alzheimer's A Caretakers Journal
Seaboard Press an Imprint Of James A Rock Pub., Co.
www.mariefostino.com