Potter's Ground

Welcome back to Potter's Ground

Today, I bring you two stories that demonstrate the power of music.

First story:

When I was a nursing assistant in a nursing home, I would assist elderly folks that couldn't do a lot of things for themselves because of dementia. This included feeding them, helping with 'personal cares' and such.

One night, I was working with an 97 y.o. patient, who spend most of his day sleeping upright in his recliner. He rarely, if ever, said anything. Even to his wife, who sat in a recliner next to him during the day. Sitting in the recliner all day was his choice, which we supported.

As I was readying him for bed, I taught him to sing, "Everybody was kung fu fighting". He struggled with the words "kung fu".

"Everybody was kung few fighting", He would say.

"No no, Bill, it is Kung FOO", I'd answer.

It was like Marco-Polo for about 30 minutes. Each time, I would crack up at his mispronunciation. He would laugh in response to my laughing, and we laughed at the sillyness at all.

"What the HELL is kung few?" He finally asked.

"Oh, Bill, KUNG FOO, it's like boxing" said me.

"Oooo, kung foo!", laughing as he sounded it out.

All told, it took about 45 minutes for him to learn the verse "Everybody was kung fu fighting/those cats were fast as lightening", the same amount of time it took me to ready him for bed. When he finally could sing it, we sang it together and it was AWESOME!

We both laughed so hard!

Second story:

When I worked as a Registered Nurse in another nursing home, I would change a dressing on a elderly woman's hip from a skin graft procedure she had done. This was tough because she was in the later stages of dementia, so she didn't know what was really going on and couldn't really be talked through it. Also, she was mostly blind because of cataracts.

Any who, the donor site was about the size of a deck of cards. It really, really hurt these dressing changes. We would give her narcotics before hand, but she still bellowed.

But, here is the thing about dementia patients, they have endless intact memory for songs. They may not recognize their daughter, or pictures of their house, but they still remember Christmas songs and other songs from their childhood.

So, while I was doing this incredibly painful dressing change, I would have her teach me Norwegian folk songs. And in turn I taught her this:

"The other night dear, as I lay sleeping

I dreamt I held you in my arms

But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken

So I hung my head down and cried"

What is the next verse?

Guess and/or personally relate the song. Points awarded accordingly.

And BTW-she never once yelled during the times I did her dressing change. Music has power beyond any medication I could offer.