Old

In wine there's truth. In veno veritas. While this holds true, as we, the tanggeros, have witnessed time and time again, working here in the Land of the Free reveals a new truth to people.  Old age reveals how you lived your life.

I work in a skilled nursing facility.  This is like a halfway house between hospital and home or assisted living or hospice whichever is determined best for the patient by the family and careplan team.  In simpler terms, for example you have been hospitalized by a stroke.  You undergo treatment and acute rehab at the hospital.  When you are somewhat better they will send you to a SNF for further treatment and restoration.  It is then that it will be determined if you are capable and able to return to your home or not.  Well anyhow,  I am mostly dealing with the elderly and the first month that I am staying here so far, I am thinking that I could make this longterm.

Working with the elderly is a roller coaster ride.  It is not as easy as you imagine it to be.   Some come in as a ray of light amidst the gloomy winter sky, some come in as a blackhole of depression and hopelessness.  Overall, though, working with the ancestors of the modern world is highly fulfilling and it gives a lot of self-satsfaction.  What I want to talk about now though is that I have observed that old age unmasks the different life stories of people without them having to relate each and every experience they have.

I had a patient before who hated her husband (who takes care of her in the facility) so much she used to sob and sniffle during therapy.  She claimed she was married for 37 years, he was her second husband, and that 'that was 37 years of my life wasted'.  Sad ain't it, I later found out through chismis that during her hospitalization for multiple diseases significant of which is C-Diff, a highly infectious condition with contact precautions for all who handle the patient, as the nurses attempted to teach the husband how to take care of the wife, the husband reportedly said "No, there ain't no way I'm gonna take care of that shit".  What loving relationship that does make don't you think?

I had a patient who claims to be 102 sometimes 202, demented, slowly physically and mentally deteriorating who always laughs and make unique childish jokes during treatment.  She told me she was a nurse and worked as one for 63 years.  I didn't know if her 63 yrs was accurate, but she often told me she loved her job though it really didn't make that much.  You see, it shows.  When you love the life you had and you go on living with love and promise, it shows.  The light of your eyes reveals it all.

Old age may take away your strength, independence and state of mind.  It can never take away hope.  I resolve to myself, when I get old enough to develop Alzheimer's dementia, I won't be the brooding, angry old man who thinks the world is out to get him.  I will be the incoherent, playful and joyful demented client who has lived a life of joy and acceptance.  After all, when you're old and gray, there is no room to recount frustrations, dreams that will never happen and you will just take to the grave, or hatred for the world.  What matters is you have lived life to the fullest and believe me, when the day comes, without fail, it will show in the light in my eyes.