part0007

In-room 34 bed A, in a back corridor Richard “Rick” King slowly became aware of his surroundings. He felt like he was waking up from a sleep that was far too deep. He was disoriented and was not processing his environment. It did not match what he thought he remembered, so he just lay there trying to get his thoughts together .

As Rick laid there a black lady who he did not recognize at all came into the room.

“Time for your dinner handsome,” a cheerful Peggy Tapp announced.

Rick tried to ask where he was but all that came out of his dry throat was a croak. A very startled Peggy Tapp stopped and looked at him carefully.

Rick tried again, “Water,” came out as a dry rasp.

Peggy left the room rapidly and returned quickly with a cup of water. She lifted it to his dry lips, so he could sip it. After several sips, he tried to talk again.

“Where am I and who are you?”

“You’re in the William Donald Schaefer rest home, and my name is Peggy Tapp,” she told him.

“Figures,” he said in his raspy voice, “I’m a Republican.”

Peggy chuckled as she picked up his chart. It confirmed what she remembered. This was a patient listed as having severe dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. There was no way that this conversation should be happening!

Peggy thought rapidly, I have to report this so a doctor can look at him, but the first dinner.

“It is dinner time now, are you hungry?”

Rick didn’t have to think.

The smiling attendant said, “Let me raise the bed and put the tray in place.”

She was raising the bed as she spoke. Swinging the table stand into position, she placed the tray in front of him.

“Dinner is served,” announced the almost giddy black lady.

Peggy had never seen a patient so far gone make this sort of recovery. After many years of nothing but the unremitting gloom of watching people pass this was a brief ray of hope. She had no illusions that it was nothing but a brief step back from the abyss for him, but it still felt good.

“Looks like mush,” Rick commented.

“A step above, but that is what we have had to feed you for the last several months. Now, do you need help?”

Rick got a rather stubborn look as he said, “Been doing it for eighty-some years”

Rick tried to raise a spoon in a shaky hand but could not get it to his mouth. After letting him try, Peggy spoon-fed him.

“Is there any dessert?” he asked.

“Not right now, but I will see if I can find something before I come in to tuck you in for the night. ”

“It will be appreciated. I’m still hungry.”

Later Peggy was at the nursing station and was talking to Liz Herring the night nurse on duty. She described what was occurring with Rick King.

Liz looked thoughtful for a minute.

“This sounds extreme but possible. Alzheimer’s is a funny disease. There is the disease, and there are secondary factors such as environment or another illness such as diabetes.”

Liz went on, “These secondary conditions make dementia appear worse if the condition improves there seems to be remission in the Alzheimer’s. I wonder what changed. I will put him on the list for rounds tomorrow.”

Doctor Charles Meyers, a youthful-looking resident at Baltimore East Hospital cleared his throat.

“This is one of the stronger cases of dementia appearing worse than it actually is because of secondary causes.”

“The real puzzler is that from the limited medical history we have there are none of the common secondary conditions present such as diabetes, anxiety drug use, depression, urinary tract infection, a thyroid imbalance or vitamin B12 deficiency. There have been no recent environmental changes.”

“About the only thing that can’t be ruled out is recovery from a series of mild silent strokes.”

The recent graduate in Geriatric Medicine continued, “Because of the patient's advanced age and the known length of Alzheimer’s, there is really nothing that would be achieved to confirm this by diagnostic testing. Continue care as before, but realize that for a brief time, you have a more aware patient who needs to be treated as such.”

“Thank you, Doctor, that is what we thought, but we needed it confirmed,” stated Liz Herring the night nurse attending the conference after Doctor Meyer’s rounds.

Lisa Hawkins the head nurse followed on with, “As long as he is aware we will work with him to get him out of bed and more involved with his own personal care and interaction with others.”

“Sounds like a plan, now I need to get back to East to perform my rounds there. They keep talking about reducing our eighty-hour workweek, but nothing happens. How in the old day's residents put in one hundred and twenty hours without killing everyone I will never know.”

Both nurses chuckled at the never-changing complaint of all resident intern physicians.

“Good afternoon Mister King, how are we today,” bubbled Peggy Tapp.

“I am fine. I don’t know about you,” replied Rick in a fake crotchety manner.

“It is so good to hear that. Dismal is the norm here, so it is uplifting when something nice happens.”

King asked, “What did the young kid have to say about me this morning, He certainly asked enough questions.”

“Now don’t be mean, Doctor Meyers is trying his best.”

“I know, but everyone seems like children!”

Peggy grinned, “I hear you, and twenty to thirty-year-olds are beginning to look that way to me. I can see how that would be a problem for someone as ancient as you.”

“Wait a minute, I am not ancient. I just look that way,” King retorted.

Okay then, Old Man, let’s get you out of this bed and take a walk.”

“Not in this damn open gown I’m not!”

Peggy got a stern look, but then blew it by giggling,

“Get your boney white butt out of bed. Anyway, I have a gown for you. ”

While talking, she opened the cabinet which served as a closet and pulled out a threadbare men’s nightgown.

“We have a collection of the finest men’s clothing.”

“Better than this gown,” grumped King.

He struggled to sit up. Peggy raised the head of the bed then helped him bring his feet around. As he started to lean forward to stand he grabbed her arm and sat back down.

“Well, what do you expect after being down for most of two years? Sit there for a minute and let things settle.”

“Peggy, what is the date?” King asked.

“April 14, 2021.”

“The last I remember is August 2016.”

Peggy nodded sadly, “Doesn’t seem fair does it, five years of your life gone, just like that. Then again, you are here now, be thankful for what you have. Now lay down again. We have a lot of work to do before you will be able to get out of bed.”

Rick snorted, “There’s that We again, you going to be doing this work?”

“As a matter of fact Mister Smarty Pants I will be helping you with your therapy. I should be paid extra for all the whining you will be doing. ”

“How do you know I will be whining?”

“Cause, that’s what all you boney butt white guys do!”

“Okay,” a pale Rick gasped, “I have sat up too long, now what?”

“Uh, lay down,” the rotund Peggy asked?

“Only for you, my dear,” Rick said as he collapsed.

Peggy with an evil grin said, “Well done boney, now sit up again.”

“Yep up and down five times is what the therapist wants, that’s one.”

“Maybe being out of it was not so bad,” as Rick shakily tried to sit up again.

“Now back down. Two.” Ricks painfully looking thin arms were shaking as he forced himself up a third time. At his fourth attempt, his arms could not bring him up.

“Well done honey child,” Peggy cried, “We did not think you would be able to do three.”

Rick grinned weakly as he asked, “What did the Doctor really have to say. I didn’t understand him when he tried to explain my condition. ”

Peggy now very serious, told him, “Mr. King it was thought you had severe dementia, but you don’t, some other problem which we think was a series of small strokes made it seem worse than it was. The way you are acting right now it appears you’re at a mild stage of Alzheimer’s, and that is very good news for you.”

“Where do we go from here?” Rick inquired.

“YOU will be doing your ups and downs twice a day till we can actually get you out of bed. As for ME, I am going home, it’s the end of my shift,” laughed Peggy.

“Got me,” Rick laughed right back. “I have so many questions about what has happened in the world, and my last five years. When can I get some updates?”

“As soon as we can put you in a wheelchair and get you down to the lounge”

“Blackmail,” Rick complained.

“Yep, therapy has it down to a science.” Peggy chortled, “See’ ya tomorrow,” as she left the room.

Rick sighed as she walked away. “This is not how I expected the end of my life to go. A quick heart attack or losing it in, Never Never land, but not this, go away then come back. Wonder how long I will be here this time? ”

At the same time in room 42, night shift Nurse Linda Klima was taken aback when the patient in bed B asked, “Where am I?”

Head Nurse Lisa Hawkins looked around her utilitarian office as if wondering how she came to be here. To have one unusual medical occurrence was noteworthy. The same occurrence twice was weird. Shaking her head, she pushed the speed dial for Doctor Meyers.

After two rings, she received his voice mail. Leaving a message about another patient appearing to recover from severe dementia, she hung up. She heaved a sigh of relief; she didn’t want to speak with him directly.

This relief lasted for about two minutes when her phone rang. “Lisa this is Chuck Meyers, what’s this about another case like Rick Kings?”

Lisa spit out, “Marsha Wren, another of our patients with severe dementia for several years, suddenly is awake and aware!”

“Slow down Lisa,” Chuck told her, “when did this start and how solid is this?”

Wrapping the phone cord around her arm nervously Lisa told him, “During last rounds, she asked where she was. Since then she has been conversing rationally as though she has never had Alzheimer’s. This has continued this morning, and I have spoken to her. She is puzzled about where her last five years have gone but seems normal.”

“Wow, Lisa that is unreal. I can’t get over there until my scheduled rounds tomorrow, but she and Rick King have to be my first visits.”