The Way to Treat An Alzheimer's Patient!

The verse from Ephesians that I used in my last post first came to me right after leaving Jack at Silverado on November 21, 2008.  The part of it that is so amazing to me is that it says God is able to do more than we ask or even imagine.  Yesterday I finally asked myself, "Just what did I ask of God on that day in November?"  The answer:  only two things--that Jack be treated well and that they not decide they couldn't keep him.  That's it.

So...how did God answer my meager prayer?  Here are some of the ways.

1.  They engaged Jack.  Rachael, Kisha, and Raul took him along on errands almost every day.

2.  They honored Jack, the construction expert, by asking his opinion and making him feel that it was important.

3.  They involved Jack by asking him to sit in on their meetings.  It was amazing!  I would arrive,and there they would be around the dining table--all the management personnel--and Jack! Later he would invite himself to any meeting he saw taking place.  Even other families accepted Jack's presence at their conferences!

4.  They (especially Mary Poole, R.N.) were more intuitive about his physical needs than I was able to be.  She could tell when his behavior indicated he was suffering pain--from a hernia, for example.  And she was able to smoothly get the problem corrected.  Mary also knew and knows more about Alzheimer's Disease than anyone else I have run across in all these years.

5.  Silverado provided great long halls where Jack was able to walk without limitations--day or night.  (There was only about one week of his life that he was bedridden.)         

6.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that EVERYONE at Silverado LOVED Jack.  This should really be No. 1!  This was not a passive love.  This was an action-filled love.  And it was not just the caregivers.  It was also the families of the other residents.

My concern that Jack's behavior would cause Silverado to send him elsewhere is almost laughable.  Mary was kind enough to say several times to me (in her beautiful Scottish brogue) that Jack was "a walk in the park" to care for.  I really believe that on his worst day they probably would have fought anybody who tried to take him away!

So, do you think I was a little faithless in my request of an almighty God on that day in 2008?   I KNOW I was.  But His goodness does not depend on me, for which I could not be more thankful.  

I have realized that writing these thoughts on this blog is therapy for me.  I thank you if you have hung in and read it.  Feel free to send me a bill!