The day has finally arrived!!
I have reached the point where I am not only a caregiver for the elderly ---I am also one of the elderly. I feel like they look at me and are thinking " How can she take care of me when she is also elderly"??
How do you know when your elderly? When your 60-70 can't see good or hear good?? This is a label like now your a senior citizen ;over the hill and more!!
I found out I was elderly when I broke my tailbone and when 911 was called it was " an elderly lady has fallen!!!!" I guess I graduated.
I got involved in this venture many years ago when I started a Home for the Elderly. Many people say they could never stand this type of work but to me it is not a job.You need a sense of humor and know how to laugh because that can get you through almost anything.
One of my Golden Rules was NEVER let anyone know you don't know what is wrong!! No matter what the problem is you learn how to "wing it", as the Dr Pitkin was always saying.
If a resident said "I really don't feel good today" You would always say " I wasn't feeling good earlier but now I have had breakfast I feel better!" The goal was to get their mind on something else.
I had one resident who had a very bad compulsive dis-order and she wanted to wash her hands constantly. The Dr. finally got her on some medicine that made her stop but it took a while. She was always sitting in a rocking chair, looking out the window and keeping her eye on the bathroom door. This was to make sure when she wanted to wash her hands the sink would be available!
One day I got another resident in and it got very interesting. He was a little man ( about 5'3" and he happened to pick a rocking chair next to Emma. Those two would sit and rock and discuss their lives for hours. Neither one of them liked TV so they just seemed to go together. I thought this was great because Emma had a rough life and was really a very lonely lady.
When Emma's family brought her to me they never told her she was going to be living there. They brought her in and told her she had been invited for lunch and they started to leave and she grabbed her coat. They told her she was staying and walked out-- just like that. She was crying so hard and begging me to help--- it was so hard on everyone. I finally got her quiet and talked and talked to her . She adjusted but it was so hard. They only came to visit her twice in four years so I was happy she found a friend.
One morning , as I was fixing breakfast for the residents I was listening to them talk when all at once Emma said, " Ed would you marry me?" I stopped what I was doing because I got a terrible feeling that he would say the wrong thing. He was a perfect gentleman through this. He rocked a few times and said ,very nicely, " Emma , it is so nice of you to ask but I promised my wife I would never marry again". Emma kind of sighed and said "OK". I never let on I heard but we gave Emma extra nice compliments for a long time.
I remember one resident quite clearly. Her name was Sarah and she loved cats. I even broke one of my rules buy allowing her to have a kitten in her room. Sarah was in her 80's and had a very bad heart. We really had to watch her closely because she was also on oxygen 24 hours a day. She demanded attention all the time but we were able to work with her very easily but talking about the cat. She fell in love with the Dr. who made house calls. If she knew he was coming she jumped off the bed, scurried to the bathroom and proceeded to wash herself. Than she would put on a pair of baby doll pajama's dab on the perfume and wait until she heard him in the house. At this point she would "recline" on her bed in what she thought was a seductive pose. The Dr. knew this and was always very nice to her. One day as he was checking her heart she said" How many children do you have?" He replied, "I have five children". It got very quiet and than she said" You better keep your pants zipped from now on ". I was so embarrassed but he took it stride and finished checking her out and left. She lived with me for about two years and died. When they read her will she had left everything she had to Cornell University for cat research!. I guess she got the last meow!!
Will try to post more next week.
