Conversations with the elderly

The past 3 weeks I've been on a hospital placement, working in the field of Gerontology. I've enjoyed my time there, though for some reason I only got to discharge 1 of my patients, with another to be discharged on Monday compared to my classmate who was there and discharged about 4 or 5 of his patients. He said it's a reflection of the "superiority in his quality of physio treatment". hrmf! =P

I had mainly 5 patients, Mrs. Veteran with a stroke and residual left weakness, Mrs. Fearful for a fall and possible TIA, Mrs. Smoker post cardiac surgery, Mr. Social after a heart attack, and Mr. Gentleman with a chest infection/confusion. It was great seeing them all improve from when they first came in knowing that some of what I did helped; though unfortunately for Mr. Social, he only made it as far as the transition lounge on discharge before he was readmitted again to another ward for a fever.

Here are some random tidbits:

Mrs. Fearful
She improved the most from my rehab compared to the other patients. Everyday she would tell me about the horrible food in the hospital and details of how they gave her a hot meal when she asked for a sandwich, and how they got the sandwich wrong. She was very anxious and afraid of falling again, granted her balance was horrible when she first came in, but it was great to see her get her confidence back and become mostly independent again.

The tactic my supervisor used: "Well, it's not so bad being on the floor is it? You can put some pillows down around your house so that if you fall you can make yourself comfortable until someone can come help you and even put a bottle of water on a chair within reaching distance."

"Really? I never thought about it like that before..."

Surprisingly, this worked like a charm!

Mr. Social
He's a smart guy who used to work in the army and lived all over the world because of it. In general, we had pretty intelligent conversations and he'd tell me about the books he likes to read but on the first day my first impressions weren't all that great regarding his mental state.

"Where are you from?"
Me: "Canada"
S: "Oh, Eskimo then?"
Me: "Yeah, there's Eskimo's in Canada"
S: "What's that other nice word for Eskimos?"
Me: "Inuit?"
S: "That's it"

Later on in the afternoon:
S: "You lied! I see your name badge. I can tell by your last name you're not Inuit!"
Me: "No, I was born in Hong Kong but I moved to Canada when I was young..."

Next day:
S: "So, you're Inuit. You don't get cold then. What're you doing in short sleeves? It's freezing! Well, I guess you're Inuit. You're used to the cold..."

Mrs. Smoker
When I asked her if she smoked, her reply:
"Yes, I smoke 20cig/day for the past 70 years. Obviously I'm not smoking now in the hospital, but when I'm out I will again. I started when I was 17. Back then it was normal. Nobody knew the side effects. Now that I've done it for so long I'm not about to stop. If it's going to kill me, it's going to kill me."

Sounds like she's had other people try to convince her to stop smoking and she wanted to put a stop to it before I even said anything. Fair enough, I suppose she is 87 years old.

Mr. Gentleman
He always stood up whenever I entered the room to talk to him and when I told him he could stay seated, his reply:

"I always stand up for young ladies."

"In my experience, when you look for someone to marry, don't go for good looks. You want to find someone with good manners and average looks. My mom was very strict with us and we always needed to remember our manners. People who are good looking tend to get bored and look for someone else and the marriage doesn't work well."