My Bionic Man.
Ken went to the Repat. for his first ICD check today, and I went into the cardio. room with him. The cardio technicians sat him in a chair next to a computer, waved something over his chest, and then proceeded to punch info. into their machine. They would call out numbers and stuff, and a girl sitting at another computer across the room typed the info. into her keyboard.
The techies said to Ken "We are going to adjust the ICD. You might feel something". Ken was looking at me, and as I watched his face, he blinked and screwed up his face for a few seconds. There was absolutely NO PHYSICAL CONTACT. Afterwards I asked Ken what it felt like. He said it was weird - he felt a kind of flutter in his heart, and he felt 'strange' for a couple of hours after that. When I joking asked the techies if the ICD was solar powered they laughed and said "No, but it's wireless. As in a wireless computer." Which of course it is. A computer in Ken's chest. The bandage was taken off and there is hardly any scar tissue, but you can clearly see the ICD. It looks like a mobile phone has been stuffed under his skin.
As the hospital is just down the road from where Ken's Mum is living, we decided to drop in for a while. She was pleased to see us as always, and interested to hear about Ken's experience this morning. He showed her the ICD and said how wonderful the technology is today. To our horror she started crying and said "Oh but it should never have happened to you. I don't know what I've done". Ken said "Mum it is nothing to do with you - it was because of my smoking". She nodded, and calmed down, but was still a bit sad for the rest of our visit. You have to be so careful with what you say to people with any kind of dementia. There are things they can no longer comprehend, and it just upsets them...
The techies said to Ken "We are going to adjust the ICD. You might feel something". Ken was looking at me, and as I watched his face, he blinked and screwed up his face for a few seconds. There was absolutely NO PHYSICAL CONTACT. Afterwards I asked Ken what it felt like. He said it was weird - he felt a kind of flutter in his heart, and he felt 'strange' for a couple of hours after that. When I joking asked the techies if the ICD was solar powered they laughed and said "No, but it's wireless. As in a wireless computer." Which of course it is. A computer in Ken's chest. The bandage was taken off and there is hardly any scar tissue, but you can clearly see the ICD. It looks like a mobile phone has been stuffed under his skin.
As the hospital is just down the road from where Ken's Mum is living, we decided to drop in for a while. She was pleased to see us as always, and interested to hear about Ken's experience this morning. He showed her the ICD and said how wonderful the technology is today. To our horror she started crying and said "Oh but it should never have happened to you. I don't know what I've done". Ken said "Mum it is nothing to do with you - it was because of my smoking". She nodded, and calmed down, but was still a bit sad for the rest of our visit. You have to be so careful with what you say to people with any kind of dementia. There are things they can no longer comprehend, and it just upsets them...
posted by Gina E. | 12:15 am
3 Comments:
hmm that's interesting.i'm a student nurse at the moment and most of my patients are elderly with some level of parkinson's or dementia and they often blame themselves for a lot of things. perhaps they have the same self centred view of the world that toddlers have.
I'm reading a book about dementia at the moment (very interesting) and it has three fundamental suggestions as to how to be with people with dementia: never ask questions; talk about things they're interested in and indeed expert in; and never correct them or even interrupt them.
Thank you for your comments Cell and Isabelle - much appreciated. You both have valid points; I worked with aged people for 10 years, and learnt those principles when studying for my certificate in aged care.
Post a Comment
<< Home