Markdown lines 347–492 · Part 3 of 6
when they're really agitated. And it's, it's like when they're in the TV room that they can't get
away from each other. I mean, they have their rooms, but a lot of them don't know enough to
get up and walk out of that room. And we just wanted someplace to take them and think that
maybe they could just come there and calm down. And now we're getting some referrals just
for that, to just have them there. And, you know, just chill out for a while. Just give them a little
bit of peace and quiet.
31:09
When they're there.
31:11
Let's see, we use sleeping through the rain, which is I've used that one, I think the most inner
journey, I've used remembrance, I've used midnight. Nostalgia, serve, soundscapes, and
Cloudscapes Cloudscapes sleeping through the rain and inner journey are my three
Mainstays. And those those are the three that I used to boast. I also have some other
residents now that had been have been referred in. Another one is Rosemary. And she's 73
years old, she was severely retarded at birth. In fact, she actually died and they resuscitated
her at birth. And her mother took care of her until she was like 36 years old. And then she was
placed in an institution and I assumed that probably her mother was too old or could just, you
know, could no longer care for that she was just she had just gotten to be such a handful.
Rosemary has dementia and her behavioral problems are screaming pulling her hair,
scratching herself self mutualization I'm not exactly sure the number of years she's been there,
she's been there 10 or 12 years. And up until the last couple years is the only time that I have
ever seen her where she does not have scratches on her face on her arms, completely
covering her whole body. And when she screams, you could hear it all over the place. If you're
out in the parking attendant work coming in.
32:57
And she's on the sixth floor. Talk a lot. And I can hear us it's kind of a light of day today. So
let's just like a little wake up call, I guess for me, good morning.
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She was one they thought and brought her down. Well, what are you gonna do with her? She's
all yours. It's like, Oh, thank god, she's gonna be off the floor for half an hour, you know? And I
thought, Okay, we'll tolerate this for a while. And at first you she would scream she would not
allow you to touch her. She was very resistive. And it was it was a real chore for nursing, you
know, for the staff to do her care. She rubs her face, her eyes and her lips shale. It was a
constant kind of motion like this. And she would do it until they were just wrong. You know, it
was like, do something with her. So I did sleeping through the rain with her. And it was like a
month later that she was in there. And I said hi rosemary, how are you? And I was standing
there talking to her and I usually play the Hemi sync and we go in the multi sensory room and I
placed her in her chair. She doesn't walk in. She's in a recliner chair and she has
hyperextension in their head. They told me she was blind. But she has one good eye. Because
she was looking at me. I walked over and said Rosemary were you doing and I could see and
this I saw I wonder if she sees like that he keep telling me she's blind, but it's nothing to get
these charts from these places, you know, and they say, Oh, she's blind, or they can't hear.
Yeah. And so I kind of walked around to the other side of the chair. And she just kind of moved
the head ever so slightly and looked at me. So I put her under one of the mobiles and you No
would shake it. And then I have some little handheld things that glow in the dark. And they
they're like fiber optic lights, their little ones. Well, she took it, and she held it. And she is one
that she won't take anything, whatever you give her she throws. So I was standing there and I
just kept talking to her and talking to him. And all of a sudden she goes, you're red. And I'm
like, where does that come from? This lady does not talk. Where did this come out? I'm
thinking, oh, man, what are we into. But since then she has made a few other relevant
statements to some of the other staff and they have documented that to make me feel real
good. So when I go up and do a note, I always read to see if there's anything in here that
validates what I think I'm seeing. And she finally has gotten to the part where she had a stuffed
rabbit that she held. And she actually made a statement about this rabbit to someone else. I
mean, it was just she made a statement. Now she, at certain times, she would maybe repeat
what you say, if you'd say rosemary, do you want to go to bed? Go to bed, go to bed, go to
bed? Or roast me? Are you hungry, hungry, hungry? I mean, she never had ever. As far as the
staff knew formed a thought I mean, a conscious thought to Make up a sentence or a
comment. on her own. It was always a mimicking kind of verbal verbalizations that she did.
Yeah, that she finally got to where she would pick up her leg. My daughter also works at South
Mountain, she works as an activity aid. But she also is a coder. So she kind of enhances her
activities, especially her sensory stem on on Rosemarys floor with some illegal OT, he's
practicing license. But she was telling me she said, Well, she let me massage her foot. I said
You're kidding. She says no, she did. So I thought, well, we'll try that. So I had her in there. I
said, rosemary, can I rub your feet? So I left rubbed them, you know, with the socks on? And
she kind of tolerated that? Oh, okay, do you want me to take your socks off? So I took her
socks off. And the next thing I know, this lady comes up, and she wanted to massage. She
was ready. So now every week when she, you know she'd bring her in, it was like, I'd say,
okay, rosemary, you ready for your massage and the leg would come up. And before she
would not tolerate touch like that. It was like, you know, I mean, you touch her it was like a
32nd touch and you had to, you had to let go because she'd hit you or kick you or bounce
yourself in the chair to thought oh, she's gonna bounce out. So you quit. But you know, they all
have their own little way of of communicating, no matter how debilitated they are, and you
really have to watch for all the subtle, subtle changes to know what's going on.
38:16
Pretty much we're feeling pretty, pretty happy and relieved that the staff started noticing the
changes occurring with some of the residents. Again, we're working on the sixth floor, which
usually was debilitated individuals out there in stages of the disease processes. So we were
happy to be surprised that we received a new admission referral. And this individual came from
the secure unit, which is what we call dementia because they use it for individuals who who
are unsafe to themselves because they are wondering, you know, wanting to go ahead and
follow the steps. So they're placed in they have a lot of activities out there, because they're
very, very active group. Well, she came in and I initially saw her for for dining skills. Because
what happened was she would sit there at the dining room, and Maria would just get up walk
walk out. And so with that, let us try some traditional OT, we're gonna go ahead and have her
meal in a standing position. So we'll put a hospital table elevated throughout. And so that way
she wants to stand up she could still eat. We had so much success with that then she still
walked out. So they know she and I got together and this is what we put her chair on the
opposite side of the door on the table so it will be difficult for her to get up. Nursing like that.
Great. Yeah Oh, yeah, well, I helped out. But she still had a problem with concentration with
her meal. She was ambulatory, she could express herself. She actually was a community
admission. So this lady, if she didn't show up that she had potential for very well, her mother
function. So we said, Okay, we'll come in, we'll try Hemi sync with her. So to describe that,
40:32
well, rich worked with her blind set in the dining rooms. And we had her come down to the
clinic a couple of times, because she was very, very wary. She's very paranoid. And she's just
really anxious. So I got kind of got to know her and build up just a little bit of a rapport. And so I
said, Mary, let's go for a walk. So it's up to the multi sensory room, just to show her what it
was. And I left the light on the just a regular lamp that has like a, like 150 watt bulb is the
highest in it. And I turned it up nice and bright, because I didn't want her to go in. She goes,
Why am I in this black room? And I said, Oh, we're just here to relax. I said, Why don't you sit
down for a little bit. So that's what she did. She sat down for a little bit, she sat down in the
rocking chair, I think her butt hit that chair for three seconds. Up, boss, that chair and out the
door. She went, I said, come on back in here, Mary. She said, I don't know I so I'll come back
in here with me for a little bit. So I did coax her back in, we stayed for a little bit. And we talked
and I showed her some different things. And I said, Okay, now I'll take you back to your ward.
So I took her back. And that's the way we kind of did it. At first was just to kind of get her used
to the room and being there. And I would let the light go on. And I would place it here at once
you listen to this pretty music. And she yelled, okay, but she would move around the room, she
wouldn't stay in one spot. You know, she'd be here for a couple minutes. And then she'd go
over here, in and out. And finally I thought, here's that beanbag chair, and it's on a platform on
rollers. And I thought, well, if she misses that, she sits down, I'm gonna be in trouble. So
anyway, I anchored it back against the wall, and I hollowed it out so she could get right down in
it. And she sat down in it. And she wiggled around a little bit. I said, you like that? Yeah. I said,
we'll just lean your head back. So she leaned her head back, and she goes, How long am I
gonna be here? Just a couple minutes, Mary has to just wait where we play the music. So she
did. And she stayed in nothing for 1520 minutes. I thought, Man, this is good. This is this is
progress is a big progress. So it continued that way. And now Now she comes up and she
usually has a big smile on her face. And I say, are you ready, and she says she. And last week
I went down. And I was on the floor. And she's never really seen me out of my environment of
OT and the black room. She's never seen me down on the floor. And a lot of times when the
residents don't see you where you belong, they don't know you. You're You're somebody
foreign, you know, you're a stranger. And I went there and course their elevator was locked
and you have the key it to get the elevator to come and I was standing there waiting for it and
Mary come around the corner. She looked up at me and she says, When can I come from my
treatment? I said tomorrow, I'll see you first thing in the morning. Okay. And now she even lets
me do some cranial manipulation with her. She seems to be very comfortable when there we
are played. Initially, the sleeping through the rain and the inner journey because I knew that
was at works with him. The first time with the inner journey. She everything was perfect. She
was quiet. She was calm. She was sitting there just enjoying everything. And the next thing I
know she likes I've just heart rending scream and screams I didn't do it. I didn't do it. And I'm
like, Mary, she said, Yeah, I said, What didn't you do? Complete silence. She wouldn't. She
wouldn't go and go there. So I think it was two times after that. Two sessions after that, that
she told she screamed again. And she says I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't kill my children.
And I thought, Oh, now where are we going with this? And she's talked to me a couple of
times. And then I talked to nursing staff and they, they they were telling me how much trouble