A few days ago I had one of those "I love my job" kind of days. These don't happen that often, although weekly there are moments that stick out. Normally a day loving my job involves adoring my patients and them adoring me. Doesn't matter if they are needy, just that we have some type of a caregiver-patient connection.
The day did not start off the greatest but when directly up hill. I walked into my first patient's room to be greated by "you are a terrible person." Excuse me?! This tiny 80 year old women starts into this tirade about how we are keeping her against her will and she has not eaten in two days. Well, I know last night she was hallucinating because of her UTI and that she might have bipolar, but this does not seem to fit. So I ask her to explain and I consult with our nursing assistant who would know if she had eaten. And it turns out she was supposed to get this test that you are not allowed to eat before, but for some reason she didn't get test and therefore no one thought to get her food. She hadn't eaten for about 20 hours, enough to make anyone (especially me) very very cranky. We order here a late lunch STAT (I had no idea we could do this) and her meal showed up in 5 minutes flat. After this we were best friends. She even wanted to send me a Christmas card!
The day just got better from here when I met my 94 year old patient. He looked like the skinny version of the old man in the movie "Up" complete with big bushy eyebrows. He was what I call a "young 94" which means he functions better than most 80 years olds. \He had even put up a new fence this summer! He had come in with heart attack like symptoms and was getting the 1-2 day cardiac workup. His only complaint was "the soap opera on in the next room." He was sharing a room and the family next door was carrying on just like a soap opera. "Well Sir we don't want you to have chest pain again so I will just get you a new room." We were lucky the unit was half empty, and off he went to a different bed. This got me lots of hand holding and cheek kisses. The one bump in the road was getting a call from his son asking about his dad's condition. Turns out Mr Adorable had gotten a little confused about his diagnosis somewhere along the line and had convinced himself that the leaky valves (regurgitation) that was happening to a mild degree in his heart was a leaky valve in his brain that was slowly killing him. We had a long talk and I wrote down in plain English the results of his tests, explainging that the regurgitation with his heart valves was mild and many people live at this level their entire adult lives. My most awesome nurse status was topped off by bringing him a cup of icecream and finding him a National Geographic as the poor guy had been sitting in bed for like 36 hours with one newspaper and was bored out of his mind. There was a lot more hand holding and a little "if I was 65 years younger...." before I took off for the night. When you have such a great rapport with 2/3 patients it doesn't matter if the 3rd is difficult and needy
Sometimes I wonder why I'm not in geriatrics because I love my oldest patients the most. But then I realize that most of the geriatrics I would see are not this healthy and have long long lists of problems. I don't think I have the patience to deal with it yet. I love seeing mostly healthy old people. They remind me of my amazing Grampy who is 92 years old and still incredibly active. While we aren't sure if he will still run races he is sharp as a tack (too much so in the math area, I immediately get lost) and reads voraciously (books I read as well!). His only weakness is fresh ground peanut butter. I think that the best way to be a young old person is to do what you love for as long as you physically can and to kee your mind sharp be reading and discussing. You'd be surprised how young it keeps you!
