Name and Face (1/30/2011 Sunday)

*All names are change for privacy and protection

Dear Diary,

Well, today at the Alzheimer care center was a good day.

Everyone behave themselves and I guess getting to know everyone is a great plus.

Alzheimer should be call "a big baby" disease, cause that's how it feels like, everyone is back to basic in their thinking, eating, moving, and talking. Everything has to retaught to them again!

Yesterday i was quite disappointed with the result of trying to get them to just think. So I started to tell them that my name is John (please remember that!). Funny is that, they all say "okay I will..." and 5mins later, is "huh, do i know your name?" or "i don't know what to do..."
or "Your Ron right?" So that was pretty close.

But today, to my surprise, 3 person still remembers my name and one told me that she only remembers my face and not my name.

So i told them to just focus on ONE thing at a time... "just learn my name and we will learn more later". Like washing their hands. I would tell Barbie to was her hands and she would just pick up her hands but don't know what to do with it... so every morning i would try to teach her to wash with and how to wash in the water. So every little step has to be guided. I haven't work with little kids (in their learning stage) before but i'm sure that is about the same, step by step in learning. (hope this makes sense)

Well... today is Sunday and since most of us that works there are believers of Christ (All different denominations as one) We always put on worship music. Today we played an Elvis version of Amazing Grace and almost everyone sang to it!!! It was crazy! Especially when i saw Molly who wakes up just to pace around the hall ways and go back to bed, she was singing and blessing everyone! It was pretty awesome to see her come alive again... otherwise "she would only be repeating words like "no... no... i can't... i can't...)

Mrs. Rosy, kept on telling me that she loves my Puma and she always ask me "How old are you?" and I would say "I'm 38years old." and she would go "ohhh did time fly by fast!"...
Mrs. Rosy is African American and she is about 80 years old and very healthy, she is tall and energetic and loves to walk, so i ask her, what is her secret diet, she told me she eats everything (like BBQ RIBS!!!), and she tells me that she loves golfing. So i guess that exercise and outdoor activity is a good for health wise.

Mrs. Rosy can carry a normal conversation with you, cause i talk to her about serious stuff like drug abuse and God and music and whatever, she can talk to me about it and have an answer for it. But again... out of no where, she would ask the same questions or repeat the same phrases like "Do you know my son?" "You know i use to work as nurse" "I like your shoes, where did you get those at?" So her brain (mind) can still wonder as she carries a normal conversation with me.

Still have a lot to learn from all them. But i still feel that half of them are TRAUMATIZE by someone or some event! Another thing is self-denial... this is what Rosy told me, she said that when people self-denial they will eventually forget and get worse and worse... since those who are NOT self denial they rather face that there a problem and try to work at it.

One lady Fu-Fu she is 92 years old and she loves to write things down like "i am here" or "This is my room" and any label that needs labeling like Desk, lamp, tv, etc. She is always trying, cause she hates this "god-dammed place" that's what she would say and i agree with her frustration. She can be in normal enviroment and if she keeps on talking to people, and learn new things, then maybe she can get her memory back...

Oh yeah... also our brain in terms of upgrading... is not just about repeating brain tasks like crossword puzzles, modeling ships, majhong, or reading new books... but is about learning new things like something that you never expected to learn... . Like me, trying to figure out Alhzimer is just totally what i never expected. So it is triggering my brain to upgrade something new. Or learning to cook, that is also another thing that i didn't expected to do... i had to learn it becos i needed a job! Or learning a new instrutment like Banjo... i don't know, just whatever that you always wanted to learn... Get the Brain to work differntly and also having a learning frustration is good, becos that means your brain is working and is trying to figure it out.

Again... i am no doctor, but just a dude that likes making toys and happens to need a job and this was the only job that hired me out of 6 other applications... and even though the work is tough, i don't know why i love it!??




*All names are change for privacy and protection