So this week at work was one of those infrequent calm weeks, leaving me nothing of interest to write about in only my second post. I say calm in the sense that there were no fist fights, violent outbursts, ER visits (with one minor exception), seizures, missing clients, power outages, and/or vehicle breakdowns. That said, I have had to deal with all of these situations, minus a seizure (knock on wood), in the whole 4 months that I have had my job. I have a feeling that if I were to give a complete recap of the two days I spent at work this past week and explain them as calm, one would look at me like I am the one with a brain injury.
I'm going to try and avoid having this blog as just a rant of all the insane things that can happen at my job, and try to take a more 'health psychology' point of view (whatever that may be, I think I may have made that up) to the events I encounter, but it might end up being a little bit of both from time to time. In any case, I think this entry might be a good one to start covering the topic of memory loss. Specifically, short-term memory loss. Now, I know more than anyone, that we all have those moments of "oh, what did I come in here for?" but trust me, that's nothing.
I have often been asked by clients, "excuse me, do you know what day it is?" And perhaps just as often, "how old am I now?" With September 11th passing recently, everyone's facebook status was 'Never Forget.' When I was asked what day it was on Sept. 11th, and I stated the date and followed with the question "does that mean anything to you?" I did not get the answer one would expect to hear from someone who lived through that day in September 11th, 2001. I give them credit for trying though.
Short-term memory loss from TBI can be an interesting thing, and will try your patience probably the most out of all the symptoms of TBI. I have good reason to believe that if you spend too much time around someone with short-term memory loss, you could easily lose your mind. I have always been a very patient person, but when asked a question for the 37th time (not kidding), even I can lose it. Especially when it's a conversation like:
"Excuse me, but can you get my slippers? My feet are cold."
"Your slippers are on your feet."
"Well then why are my feet cold?"
"Because you have bad circulation..."
"#!&* @%*&!@("
(3 minutes later)
"Can you get my slippers?"
In these situations, all one can do is think 'it's not their fault, they have a brain injury, they just really can't remember.' More on this in my next entry, I think...
First of all- you're lucky you've never had to deal with a seizure! My sister has had them and they are the scariest things to watch.
ReplyDeleteThe memory problems you describe remind me of the standard memory chapter in intro/cognitive psych, where evens like Sept. 11 are used as an example of emotional memories that are encoded more strongly than neutral memories. People with these types of memory impairments are probably one of the few populations who really don't know what happened that day, or how everything changed afterward.
What I wonder about is the average age of your patients, and if they lived through other events like Sept. 11 before the TBI (like Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination). If so, can they remember back to those events because they were so far in the past? Or do many have retrograde memory impairments as well?
While you may think that you have a very mundane job, you really hold a special place in each of your patient's lives. They would really be unable to function or live a "normal" life due to their injuries if it was not for you. I was wondering what type of TBI patients do you work with?
ReplyDeleteAs for memory loss, I am curious along with Joe in terms of what types of memory loss do they suffer from. Is is short-term memory, more retrograde memory, or both types of memory loss? What do normal conversations about every day things look like? Are your patients stuck in a certain time period or sorta just floating through clueless of everything? I look forward to hearing more about your job.
Your blog post this week was a relatable topic for me. I use to work at a nursing home and similar symptoms that you are describing for short-term memory loss was present in the alzheimer patients. It could be very stressful at times. But the home designed a great program to help the patients remember important days in their lives through acting them out. For example, to remember their wedding day more vividly they would dress up in a wedding gown or tux and act out the process of getting married. It was so much fun to watch the patients light up when they remembered details of specific events in their lives.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if perhaps this kind of treatment would work in this particular case, but it definitely helped the patients at the nursing home remember specific events in more detail, if only for a short period of time.