I am not a nurse but I have extensive experience in caring for elderly people. I also have a certificate for Dimensia caring. I firstly looked after a lady of 93 for 9 years and in that time she had 2 hip replacements. I administered her medication. Helped her bath and get dressed. Cooked for her and be a companion to her. I did all the household chores and I permanently stayed with her until she passed away in 2014.
After that I looked after an old man of 73 for 2 years with brain and lung cancer. I stayed full time with him. Drove him to and from hospital for treatments. When he was admitted to hospital sometimes I was at his bedside 12 hours a day. At home and in hospital I helped to feed him, make drinks that was possible for him to drink. Administrated his medication at home. Helped him to shower at first and later on bedwash him in bed.He was at full cognitive function up untill the day before he passed away so he enjoyed my companionship during this time. He had no children to come and visit him because they all live abroad. I was all by myself or for short periods in hospital. I later changed nappies and he passed away in my arms at his home. I even had to phone the funeral people to come and collect him and helped with the funeral till his children took over.
My third patient was a 70 year old man with lung fibrosis. I stayed with him for 3 years. When he started to get symptoms it was covid so the family decided to keep him away from drs and lung specialists in order to avoid covid. I had to go through several antiseptic steps when I was out to do shopping for the house. I was all by myself when I looked after him because his family members worked. I know everything regarding oxygen treatment because he got worse even though we took him to specialists after covid. They could do nothing for him. I cooked food and cleaned the house. I had to manage my time because you can't leave a patient like that on his own when he is awake he would get panic attacks. I showered him. Feed him and took care of his bed soares. He could only sit 24 hours a day because his lungs were halfway full of mucus. If he would just move to the side to get relief from the bed soares he would trigger a cough cycle of at least an hour. So he kept straight up. I used different methods to avoid the soares and nebulizer to get the mucus out. We nebulized several times a day. Due to the high doses of cortisone he developed diabetes so I had to administer his insulins and other medication. Later on he was too frail to move and we managed to put him in the middle of the double bed with a lot of cushions behind him to be able to changed his nappies and bedwash him. He didn't have a medical aid so he refused to go to a state hospital. He said that they will leave him to die. His son made a thin pipe to connect to the vacuum cleaner to held such out the mucus that is stuck in his throat. The pipe were only 30 cm so I had to suck and go clean the pipe. Suck again and clean again for up to 10 hours at a time. I had to dissolve his medication in water and give it to him with dropping single drops. I had to constantly monitor his oxygen and heart rate on an oxygen meter. He died of a heart attack when his heart rate was 260 and I wasn't able to get his heart rate down with the medication that was available to me.
My next patient was a 96 year old lady with Alzheimer's. She was still fit to be able to bath herself and I helped with dressing because her fingers was too stiff. I administered her medication very careful any kept any other medication without reach for her. I cooked for her and stayed 24/7 with her. It was really tuff. I just went out the two mornings for 2 hours when the cleaner were there to clean the house. So I did shopping in that time or something for myself. I was her companion and accompany her to old age functions, take her to the dr or to the hairdresser. I did a certificate coarse in Dimentia in order to understand her better. I have a lot of patients and it never bothered me to repeat the same thing 5 times in 5 minutes. We also attended a cup of coffee in the old age home and garden meetings on a Thursday afternoon with all the old people. I loved it there because I was the local techno specialist. If someone's phone doesn't work then I get called, or that one's computer doesn't want to connect. I also helped with people that need to get to the dr immediately because the town didn't have a hospital.
The old lady fell 3 times and obtained big wounds on her arm and leg. I administered the wound care after a registered sister showed me how to do it. Her children that stay in the same town only visited her on a sunday after church just for 15 minutes. She lost eyesight in her left I and I went with the son who took her to a specialist for treatment. That trip of 900km was once a month. I did the laundry and the cooking for us 3 times a days before I could give her medication.