(Note:  I guess this is where I add the actual “content” part of this blog, as a counterpoint to Brandon’s excessively obsessive linking fetish.)

Musing…

One of the difficult things about my job is how to cope with deterioration.  Clearly, I work with older people who can no longer care for themselves on their own, so intellectually I realize that this is inevitable.  However, it is a bit hard not to take it personally that despite my best efforts, some of my clients are slowly going downhill.  What’s more, they cheerfully embrace the fact.  After all, why struggle with a walker when you can be pushed in a wheelchair?  Why stand on your own two feet when you can be supported by an aide doing a transfer?  Why continue to do all the work at home, when you can be blissfully chore and responsibility free at a nursing facility?  I do my best to remind my clients that, if you don’t keep trying to keep your mobility, you will never regain it, but at what point am I just foisting my own feelings about personal independence on them?  Am I just projecting my own supposed regret?  And, even if my clients do regret later what they have lost, is it my place to internalize it as well?  Probably not.  This is clearly something I need to work on.

In other news, I have been doing some research into aromatherapy and the use of essential oils.  What originally started out as me trying to find natural remedies to beat my chronic insomnia so I can get some damn sleep without taking sleeping pills, has led to all sorts of interesting information that may prove useful when working with my dementia clients.  I am particularly interested in looking for something that might calm the late-night anxiety of difficult-nursing-home-guy.  More reading is warranted.  At any rate, things are going to be smelling good at our house.

(And a warning:  Some of the dashboard controls for this darn blog of my husband’s baffle the hell out of me, so until I figure everything out, there is a high probability of really messy posts.  You’ll get over it.)