Medical Dilemma: Mrs. X lives alone and has a 24 hour CG who lives with her to assist with her daily activities. Her son is her power of attorney. I arrived at the patient's home in the morning and saw patient making her own coffee. when asked why she is doing that, patient said that her CG was not there all night and she was alone. After some time CG arrived and said that patient has memory issues and thinks that nobody was there. It was hard for me to know the real truth. If I give the CG a benefit of doubt, then I am placing patient at a risk. If I assume that patient is telling truth then I don't know if I am blaming a sincere CG for something she hasn't done. I finally called son and asked him to install camera in house to be fair both to patient and the CG
9 to 5 job for my 89 year old:
Met this lovely gentleman who tells me that his Full time job at his age goes as follows:
To give you the background, patient's wife lives in an assisted living facility 5 mins away from patient's apartment. she was moved there 1 year ago as she needed a lot of assistance due to medical problems and patient was unable to take care of her. Patient wakes up in the morning, has his breakfast and is there to see her at 10 am. They spend some time in activity center, takes her to dining room for lunch. Since he cant eat there everyday, he drives around and gets a quick lunch from a fast food place for himself, comes back to her. Both of them rest in her room and take a short nap till 3:30 pm. after which it's time to wake up, take medications and get ready for dinner. He stays with her till she gets dinner. takes her back to her room. the caregivers get Mrs. A ready and he gives her good night kiss and he leaves after she sleeps. After leaving from the facility, he picks up his own dinner or eats outside, get back home, finish few home chores and goes to bed. Next morning same routine starts. He has been doing this for 1 year and wish to continue till he or she passes away as he told me. Patient had medical problem in his rt forearm and was hospitalized for 3 days. After being back home, he was not able to drive. He was sad that he hasn't seen his wife for a week now and is eagerly waiting for his hand to heal so that he can start driving and go back to his much awaited 'full time job'.
9 to 5 job for my 89 year old:
Met this lovely gentleman who tells me that his Full time job at his age goes as follows:
To give you the background, patient's wife lives in an assisted living facility 5 mins away from patient's apartment. she was moved there 1 year ago as she needed a lot of assistance due to medical problems and patient was unable to take care of her. Patient wakes up in the morning, has his breakfast and is there to see her at 10 am. They spend some time in activity center, takes her to dining room for lunch. Since he cant eat there everyday, he drives around and gets a quick lunch from a fast food place for himself, comes back to her. Both of them rest in her room and take a short nap till 3:30 pm. after which it's time to wake up, take medications and get ready for dinner. He stays with her till she gets dinner. takes her back to her room. the caregivers get Mrs. A ready and he gives her good night kiss and he leaves after she sleeps. After leaving from the facility, he picks up his own dinner or eats outside, get back home, finish few home chores and goes to bed. Next morning same routine starts. He has been doing this for 1 year and wish to continue till he or she passes away as he told me. Patient had medical problem in his rt forearm and was hospitalized for 3 days. After being back home, he was not able to drive. He was sad that he hasn't seen his wife for a week now and is eagerly waiting for his hand to heal so that he can start driving and go back to his much awaited 'full time job'.
