No excuses

It wasn't a full moon and the weather wasn't wild, but man, the residents were. One was convinced we were killing people, chopping them up and putting them in the freezer. One was in such pain that she was begging for help. One was taking swings at other residents. One was refusing to eat. One thought his roommate was going to kill him. One resident, who has aphasia, was trying to tell us something and we could not figure it out. Whoa. In addition to that, we were short handed so all we did was run around and put out fires. I was glad to get home.

The worst thing is trying to calm a resident who's convinced we're doing nefarious deeds behind closed doors. What do you say? They think you're lying when you tell them that you're not making hamburger out of people and serving it to them for lunch. What ended up happening is that the charge nurse called the doctor who allowed the resident to have a pill for agitation. Two hours later, the resident was in bed. I hope they slept through the night and are feeling better today.

It's like a domino effect. One falls, tipping the next one over until eventually they're all lying flat. I wonder if by medicating that resident we broke the chain. I hope so. We don't need two nights in a row like this.