The Story Behind It

I am in the home care business. I work for a state agency that provides home based services to elderly individuals within the community. Most of our patients are suffering from dementia, whether it be Alzheimer's Disease or senility due to normal aging processes. The things I see and hear over the course of my work should be shared. Due to confidentiality laws, I cannot disclose names or locations, so each of my patients will have a nickname.

While I can't tell you who they are by name, I can tell you who they are by heart. Dementia takes away many things, one of which is inhibition in a lot of cases. Rather than close themselves off to outsiders, my patients tend to take me in with open arms. I know about their fears, their loves, their families, their childhood. They may not remember what they had for breakfast, but they remember what brought them joy in their youth. Isn't that more important anyway?

I'm not sure where this blog will go. It may simply be a form of therapy for my own mind, on days when I have trouble coping with helping others learn to cope. If it is this hard for me to wrap my mind around what's happening to my patients, I can't begin to imagine how afraid, lost, forgotten, forsaken they all must feel.

So we will begin. Each patient will be introduced on their own, as each has their own story. Maybe by reaching out to the internet, I will find better ways to treat, to soothe, to comfort. Heaven knows I'm struggling to find it on my own.