This past week Ben and I haven't been up to too much. I finally got my day shift switched to evenings so now Ben and I get to see each other during the day again. There was lots of stuff that happened at work this week for both Ben and me.
Ben got beat up by an old lady in the hospital and he had to give his first enema this week. He's really learning the meaning of dirty work. He has really been enjoying his new job. I think that he is really a great person for this type of work because with his personality he is really helping a lot of people in the hospital. They say that Beacon is the facility that they send the worst people to. Beacon takes in residents that nobody else will. It is a major behavioral facility. As I have worked there and observed some of the residents it's amazing realize that a lot of the behaviors that the residents have come from really crappy cna's and nurses. If every cna and nurse behaved in a good calm manner I think it would decrease the behaviors. It doesn't happen like that though. I have seen a cna yell at an old lady for not eating her food and I've seen another cna order a resident who is completely coherant resident around over the most rediculous thing. There are residents who aren't with it and can't do things for themselves so they have to have a cna with them at all times and sometimes the cna that is with them doesn't want to do anything so they keep the resident in bed the whole shift so that they can sit on their butt and watch tv for eight hours. What makes Ben a great cna is that he actually talks to the residents. He finds out what they like and what their hobbies are so he can talk to them so they feel like someone listens to them. Even if Ben can't find a common interest with a resident he makes something up and pretends he knows what he's talking about just to keep the resident entertained for a while. He's really good with the sex offenders too. One of the old men asked a female aid to sit on his lap and Ben stepped in and asked if he could sit in his lap and the old man was disturbed by it and left the girl cna's alone. He's a good cna and a lot of the behaviors have gone down since he's been back there.
Work is going well for me also. I got punched in the face by an old woman. It took me by surprise because I didn't even see it coming. I just thanked her for helping me wake up and then I finished helping her go to the bathroom and went about the rest of my shift. There is one old lady who is the meanest lady I've ever met, but I absolutely love her and I'm probably the only one who loves her too. Every time I walk in the building I have to walk past her room to clock in and she always calls for me from her bedroom so she can ask if I'm working on her hall and she gets upset if I'm not. One of my other favorite ladies is kind of off her rocker. I was working until 10:00 one evening and I went to check on her and she was trying to crawl out of bed. I asked her what she was doing and she said she had to get up and change immediately. I told her it was time to go to bed and asked her why she wanted to change. She said her shirt was too ugly and she needed a different one. She made me and one other cna put her in a dress so she could go to bed pretty. She is so funny. She has a purple bed and she loves it. She won't let you cover it up because she wants the purple showing. She will sit in her room for hours staring at her bed saying, "purple, purple, purple..." Most of the old men like me, but one old man hates me for some unknown reason. He asked me if I had kids and when I told him I didn't he said that it was a good thing because I wasn't fit to be a mother. That might have hurt my feelings, but it didn't because coming from a sex offender he obviously wasn't fit to be a father. I wanted to spit back a rude witty remark, but I decided that it would just start a battle that wasn't worth it. On the other hand I have an old man that waves to me until I acknowledge his presence from clear across the cafeteria and there is another man that always goes to bed after dinner and he invited me to go with him on more that one occation. They either love you or they hate you and more often than not, you want neither.
