Vampy's Weblog - Life of a Medical Officer

Working in rehab unit made me realise just how much elderly folks are alone in the community. Many of the patients live by themselves and can only depend on themselves on a daily basis. While some may say it's a good indication that elderly folks can be independent, sadly that is mostly not the case. For many, it's not a choice but rather necessity. Their children have all flown the coop and have their own families to look after.
The scary part is that there have been cases where an elderly had died and no one realises until several weeks later and it's not because someone has notice them missing but rather because of the smell of decomposing flesh that alerted the neighbours.
Sometimes, it's not the physical loniness but the loniness caused by the diseae itself. Some of the patients have what we describe as having expressive dysphsia - the inability of the brain to make the part of the brain that handle thoughts and ideas to cooperate with another part of the brain that makes speech. So the patient may want to say "bread" but something like "gruish" comes out of the mouth. It becomes extremely frustrating for the patient he knows what he wants to say but just can't get it to come out the right way. I can't imagine how frustating and isolating that makes one feel. They can understand everything we say but just can't give a understandable reply.
But the worst happens when they have both expressive dysphasia and receptive dysphasia. That is when they can't even understand what we are saying. It's not because we are saying any thing differently but rather their brain is unable to process speech into thoughts and ideas. So wheb we say " howls your day?", their brain processes it to a jumble of letters and words that makes no sense to them.