2 Bites of Yogurt and a Hello

Do you ever have a day where you look back and say, "How did I get through that?"  That was me last week.  A few weeks ago, I posted about the funny moments that happen when working with adults.  Today, I want to reflect on another topic.  

When I first started working in a nursing home, I had the perspective of, "Well my patients are going to die eventually....It's not very hopeful!"  This is obviously the WRONG perspective to take, and I fully admit that.  It's hard not to have it, and it took many a conversation with my supervisor to change it.   When you're working with adults, you're not trying to get them back to the way they were before, because that likely won't happen. You're doing what you can to help them live the best they can right now.  It's all about quality of life.  It's helping them maintain a given level and be happy there before the decline.

I have a patient who always said, "Let's just take it on a day-by-day basis!"  It is a day-by-day basis with some of these people. I'll walk into clinic, and a client will have been moved onto hospice care.  It's HARD.  I am emotionally drained sometimes.  I do wonder how I got through a day of 2 patients being put on hospice, getting spit up on, etc.  But it's not about that.

It's about the fact that them eating 2 bites of yogurt makes their day that much better.  It's about the fact that you just walking in the room and saying, "Hello" brightens their day. It's the fact that a little conversation, even if we have no idea what they are talking about, brings a smile to their face.  We are helping them at the level they are at, and it is making their day.

That is what helps me get through those rough days.

Never a Dull Moment

There is never a dull moment working in a Skilled Nursing Facility....

I'm about to share some shortened versions of stories that happened recently at my placement. I SO wish I could tell them to you in person, but hopefully they'll come across funny/interesting!

1. I had a patient plan a full blown birthday party for me.  I asked him to sequence 4 steps to planning a birthday party, and 15 minutes later, he's still planning. And I mean PLANNING. Down to how the table would be set.

2. We had to break up a fist fight over a BIB at the lunch table.  You heard me, a bib.

3. I came into work to find out that a patient had "escaped" the nursing home, threw a nurse into a garbage can, and therefore was now no longer at the home.

4.  I told a patient I was rooting for the Red Sox to win the World Series and the patient goes, "Oh honey....".  Welcome to Cardinal Nation.

5.  I had two patients try and marry me off.  One was getting impatient for my boyfriend to propose. He told me he was going to call him up and give him a "talking-to."

6. Another patient had just finished telling me her life story and said, "So tell me about you."  I asked what she wanted to know, to which she replied, "Your age, your prospects for getting married, that's all."  Umm....

7. I had a therapy session all about fishing.  We spent a good 10 minutes on how to determine if this one type of fish was male or female.

8. One of my patients has a bunch of stuffed animals all over his bed. He proceeded to tell me the story behind each and every one of them. In GREAT detail.

9. I was feeding a patient in the dining room and all of a sudden she asked, "Where's my mother?  I can't find her.  She's been gone a long time."  Ok admittedly, that's really sad. But TWO workers came up and answered the question for her, playing along with it.  For example, "Oh what's her name?  I haven't seen her, but I'll keep my eye out."

10.  I witnessed "church" happening in the dining hall one day. Someone made a comment about not caring about the Cardinals, and the head nurse says, "Girl, you know the devil is dancing right now. Can I get an amen church?"  She kept going on and on. I don't even remember what she was saying. All I heard was, "Can I get an amen?" over and over and over.

I love my job.  There is never a dull moment.  That's all.