Tales of the young and demented

Yes, on our unit we see a lot of people whose lives are changed in an instant.

One moment, you're goofing around on a river bank with a buddy, the next, you tumble down the embankment into the water head first. Your buddy saves you, but you never walk again.

Another patient was driving down the road minding his own business when a wheel came off his car. It crashed and he's never been the same.

Our final guy started seeing double while he was working nights. He thought he was just tired. Then he started having trouble with his right hand, then right arm. At 24, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. His disease became progressive one day, and all those cognitive functions we use a lot: memory, executive function, just melted away.

Demented patients can be entertaining. One of my mild mannered demented characters kept saying, "Don't mess with me, I'm so bad!" and would repeat several television commercials over and over, including the classic, "Where's the beef?" He also answered in a similar vein when I asked what his caregiver served him for dinner. "Steak and lobster" he said with a perfectly straight face. The caregiver laughed. "I would she said, if I could liquefy it and he could swallow it with a straw!"

You can't say rehab's never entertaining, but it sure helps to have some out-of-this-world characters! More later...