Live until you die
I REALLY love what I do. Yes, it can be frustrating, stressful, depressing and a whole bunch of other adjectives that I could name, but even after 20 plus years, I still find it more rewarding than you would think.
You cannot imagine some of the things I have learned about life from this job. We see people at their very worst, their most scared, sometimes at their most manipulative.
I have a phrase I repeat often, and that is "I'm going to the woods!" This means there are certain diseases that the cure is worse than the illness, and I would not want to go through what we put people through trying to fix them. It would be better to go hide in the woods, make myself as comfortable as possible, and when it is time, become part of the food chain. (Are you listening, Michael Valentine Smith? This job has taught me to GROK.)Not being actively suicidal, I still have a plan in mind.
But, unless I come down with something that I know I will not survive (like life?), I plan on living unil I die.
I remember a little 94 year old lady I cared for several years ago. She was four foot nothing . 88 pounds, 50 of which was her smile. She was "noncompliant" and saucy about it. At 94, I tend to have the attitude that you should get to say and do anything you %#@* well please, so I let her get away with alot. One time, she had gone to the bathroom, and I took that opportunity to remake her bed. I put it to it's highest position, which was at least 3 and a half feet from the floor, and got through most of my remake before she came out of the bathroom. The topsheet that I had picked up had a big rip in it, so, leaving the bed in it's high position, I went to get another top sheet. I came back to the room to find this little bit of nuthin with one leg slung up in the bed, climbing in. I said "what in the world are you doing?" "Getting back in bed!" (DUH) I laughed, and said,"You just can't stay out of trouble, can you?" She looked at me with a half smile on her face and said, "Well, I look at it this way honey, I'm going to be dead a LONG time!"
Yupper.
You cannot imagine some of the things I have learned about life from this job. We see people at their very worst, their most scared, sometimes at their most manipulative.
I have a phrase I repeat often, and that is "I'm going to the woods!" This means there are certain diseases that the cure is worse than the illness, and I would not want to go through what we put people through trying to fix them. It would be better to go hide in the woods, make myself as comfortable as possible, and when it is time, become part of the food chain. (Are you listening, Michael Valentine Smith? This job has taught me to GROK.)Not being actively suicidal, I still have a plan in mind.
But, unless I come down with something that I know I will not survive (like life?), I plan on living unil I die.
I remember a little 94 year old lady I cared for several years ago. She was four foot nothing . 88 pounds, 50 of which was her smile. She was "noncompliant" and saucy about it. At 94, I tend to have the attitude that you should get to say and do anything you %#@* well please, so I let her get away with alot. One time, she had gone to the bathroom, and I took that opportunity to remake her bed. I put it to it's highest position, which was at least 3 and a half feet from the floor, and got through most of my remake before she came out of the bathroom. The topsheet that I had picked up had a big rip in it, so, leaving the bed in it's high position, I went to get another top sheet. I came back to the room to find this little bit of nuthin with one leg slung up in the bed, climbing in. I said "what in the world are you doing?" "Getting back in bed!" (DUH) I laughed, and said,"You just can't stay out of trouble, can you?" She looked at me with a half smile on her face and said, "Well, I look at it this way honey, I'm going to be dead a LONG time!"
Yupper.
posted by Mommanurse at 11:07 PM
2 Comments:
MommaNurse,
I don't know who is better at this - You or G.B.
I, too, have a plan. I plan on living til I die - whichever comes first! Going to the woods sounds like a plan to me, also. When that time comes, I hope to be able to make the decision to 'go to the woods' or not. Maybe we really won't start living until we die.. I know I have a few people I want to see again. I want to say Hi to my Dad again, that's for sure... I missed him a bunch - still do. I'd like to go like him -not nearly as young as him, though. I'd like to live a few years longer. He had a massive H/A and the only problem with that is - some people (ME) did not get to say - I Love you, Dad!
Yup.. That was a great post! This is really good stuff....
After all this time, I find a side of you I had missed before. Wow, when you can quote from a Heinlein novel (of which I have all of them), yahoweeee.
I, like you and others have had personal experiences with the MONSTER Alzheimer and its tragic side effects. I will meet my God on my terms or his at his choosing, mine if I have a chance. What a great post. ( And until today I didn't know you had one.)
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