I have suffered with migraines since I was 14.

It begins with my vision, white spots and near blindness. Then the pain arrives. My tongue swells, my hands go numb, and I am incapacitated for hours, sometimes up to 2 days.

 

 When I was 14, the first one happened in school. The white spots came. I ran home to tell my Dad. He rushed me into the hospital. The Doctor thought I was having a stroke. I had a spinal tap, and remained in the hospital for 5 days.

 

The last one I can remember that was intolerable was when my son was 4. I crawled to the phone and called my husband sobbing, I couldn't take care of my child...it hurt to even be.  He took me to the ER where I was given IV Demerol, which didn't even touch the pain.

 

The pain is worse than child birth.

I vomit, can not stay still. Sometimes it hurts so bad tears just roll down my face, and you can't get away from it. After having a severe migraine I actually live in fear as to when it will return.

 

My migraines are very random. Sometimes I can go years without any symptoms. Sometimes the vision problems start and I take 1 ibuprofen and 1 Tylenol, curl up in a ball and pray it will subside.

 

 

 More than 28 million Americans

 — three times more women than men — suffer from migraine headaches, a type of headache that's often severe. Although any head pain can be miserable, a migraine headache is often disabling. In some cases, these painful headaches are preceded or accompanied by a sensory warning sign (aura), such as flashes of light, blind spots or tingling in your arm or leg.

 

A migraine headache is also often accompanied by other signs and symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Migraine pain can be excruciating and may incapacitate you for hours or even days.

 

 Headaches are one of the most common reasons people seek medical help.

Almost everyone has had a headache at one point in his or her life. Although some headaches are a signal of a serious underlying illness—such as a tumor, aneurysm (ballooning of a blood vessel), or other illness—recurrent headaches more often occur without any underlying disease present.

 

I have gotten up twice this week with the visual problems that come before my migraines.

 The cause of them has never been diagnoised.

 So I'm waiting.....

And I'm scared.

As the temperatures in the midwest have remained below zero for several weeks I get an uneasy feeling.

I fear one of my residents may wander out into the bitter cold.

I came across this article in the Omaha World Herald last night at work.

Iowa Family Reunites With Alzheimer's Patient DES MOINES, Iowa --

The family of a Des Moines man who's been missing since Saturday reunites with him Thursday in Nebraska. Robert Krivolavy, 64, has Alzheimer's disease.

He somehow made a more than 1,700-mile trip alone.

On Tuesday night, he called home from a bus station in San Diego, saying he was lost.

His wife, Bobbi, booked him on a bus trip that has 37 stops between San Diego and Des Moines. She said the bus ticket was the only way she could afford to get him home.

Krivolavy apparently drove off from the motel he manages with his wife and ended up in Kansas City, Mo.

No one knows how he got to San Diego.

"Oh, he's frightened. He said he's terrified. He doesn't understand what's going on," she said.

Des Moines police said his family met him in Ogallala, Neb., to take him the rest of the way home.

 

This story, on February 15, 2007 from Hawaii

 

Missing Woman With Alzheimer's Found

Eighty-six-year-old Fortunata Ringor is back home with her family tonight, a little hungry, a little dirty, but safe. It was the best possible ending to a frightening hours-long search for the Alzheimer's patient.

Ringor's daughter-in-law, Elaine Ringor, said Fortunata had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease about three years ago.

The disease has been getting progressively worse. "She doesn't know. She doesn't know. She don't even know sometimes our names," Elaine Ringor said.

The Alzheimer's Association has a program in place called Safe Return.

How Safe Return Works

Alzheimer's Association Safe Return® is a nationwide identification, support and enrollment program that provides assistance when a person with Alzheimer's or a related dementia wanders and becomes lost locally or far from home.

Assistance is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If an enrollee is missing, one call immediately activates a community support network to help reunite the lost person with his or her caregiver.

Safe Return faxes the enrolled person's information and photo (if provided) to local law enforcement. When the person is found, a citizen or law official calls the 800-number on the identification products and Safe Return notifies listed contacts. The nearest Alzheimer's Association office provides information and support during the search and rescue efforts.

For more information visit the Alzheimer's Association's website

http://www.alz.org/

 

 

If you have elderly neighbors, relatives, or friends take a few minutes to call or stop by on these cold, snowy days.

You may save a life.

 

Nursey

"George" III

I've talked about "George" a couple times before. He lives at the facility with his wife Maxine. George has severe Alzheimer's disease.

 

About 3 weeks ago we had a nasty stomach virus spread through the facility. At highest count 21 people were suffering with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The elderly have a hard time with these types of viruses. Most are already dehydrated, or close to it. They have a hard time bouncing back from something as simple as a common cold.

 

George suffered with the virus for a week.

 

I called his family, late night on a Wednesday urging them to make and appointment to be seen by his primary physician. Thursday night I made the same call.

George was admitted to the hospital that Friday. He had lost 17 pounds. He was weak, dehydrated, very confused.

George remains in the hospital. Maxine told me last night that it isn't looking very hopeful. George is slowly slipping away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maxine is coping. She sits in her apartment with her thoughts. I try and set aside extra time for her on my med pass just to listen. She's saying goodbye...and her thoughts need to be heard. She has a wonderful family but at times she has questions, hard ones about illness and passing. I suppose it's hard for her to discuss with her children.

I think of swans. They mate for life. If they lose their mate, they float aimlessly in the water...searching.

A human life is a story told by God.

-Hans Christian Andersen-

The Loss

I mourn the loss of someone who is still alive.

I see the same smile, the same twinkle in the eyes.

Please come back to me for just an hour or two.

We have so much to catch up on, things we used to do.

I looked to you my entire life for wisdom and for praise.

Now you look to me for answers, direction, and comfort these days.

I'm angry, I resent the illness that is taking you from me.

I find it hard to accept the stranger at times, you seem to be.

I'll remain by your side, through whatever lies ahead for you.

All the sacrafices you've made for me, Dad, that's the least that I can do.

 

Alznurse929

~Night Shift Thoughts~

February 2, 2007