Driving habits of.....?

An 82-year old female patient was once 20 minutes late to her appointment.  Her reason: she complained she got stuck driving behind a little old lady.

magic is as magic does.

We have a wonderful young adult patient who is schizophrenic and is very faithful about taking their medication.  On their latest office visit, they had a frank discussion with our physician assistant.  It regarded the issue of magic, and those that practice the art.

Their take:  "I've done enough magic to know that I can't just (insert hand movement) poof, and expect magic to happen."

The same person has been known to frequent Uno competitions.

So is the same pyhysician assistant.

True story.

Your knowledge of anatomy definitions may be lacking.

This one is from several years back.

A grandmother brought her young granddaughter in for a sick appointment.  As it's my job, I tried to discern the reason for their visit.  Grandma's idea of helping was to say to her granddaughter "tell her how your Tweety hurts".

Huh?

Your daughter needs an appointment for what?

A mom called this afternoon wanting to know if she could make an appointment for her 7 year old daughter who, according to mom, fell through a ceiling and landed on concrete. Yesterday.

That's what she said.

Had an elderly man as a patient for some years. He had mild dementia. When he would need a blood draw or a shot, he would waggle his eyes suggestively, and would reply "that's what she said" to anything I said. In front of his wife. And his daughter. After some years he kicked it up a notch with "that's what she said, and then the bed broke!"

Some years back, under murky circumstances, his wife accidentally backed over him with their car.

Lost in translation.

Had a discussion with an older gentleman patient, he was frustrated over calling customer service for his mail order prescription plan. His complaint was the person trying to help him was black. His comment: "I don't have a problem with black people, I just don't speak their language". Which in this instance happened to be English.

what an interesting analogy.

A lady patient in her late 60's was in for a sick visit.  When asked how she felt, her reply was "I feel like I've been dragged down a rat's hole backwards".

I'm unclear as to whether or not being dragged down a rat's hole forward is better than backwards.  Either way, I'd prefer to not be dragged down any hole against my will.  I suppose dragging infers without informed consent.  Still, a rat's hole doesn't sound appealing.

the surprising interests of the older generation

My office is near to Syracuse, New York.  Syracuse University athletics are followed by a variety of people.  One of our secretaries is a season ticket holder for football & basketball.  The other day, SU lost (badly) to UCONN.  That morning I heard the recap on the local public radio station.  I listen to NPR in the morning while getting ready for the day.  The basketball team was a dismal 17ish % from 3-point range.  UConn was (obviously) better.  I don't follow SU sports per se, but this is something that makes the news and is almost unavoidable.

That afternoon, one of our last patients was a very wonderful 80-something lady who has been a patient of my doc for several years.  I've known her as a patient for 8 years.  Her husband is now in a nursing home, and she's still staying strong.  Had a fracture of her pelvis (I think it was pelvis) and apparently gave the staff at the rehab facility hell because she was not one to be limited by her condition.

As we were chatting, I opened the door to the waiting room.  Nobody was there.  I asked her if she still drives.  She told me yes, she does.  It's one of the easier things for her to do.  As she's now getting around with a wheeled walker with a padded seat, I asked her if she needed help getting out to her car.  The only thing she wanted any help with was getting the walker into the trunk of her car.

As she was getting her coat on, she saw me tidying up the waiting room, collecting the sections of newspaper.  The SU/UConn game was front page of the sports section.  She saw that, and said "they lost that game.  I could have shot better threes than they did".  Amazing on many levels.  And an excellent reminder that an older age doesn't equal a retreat from life's enjoyments.

And, she also has her own Facebook page.  True story.

inaugural post

The doctor's office I work at has a cradle to the grave population.  Our youngest patient is 16 days old.  Our oldest patient is 100ish.  The 101 year old patient passed away, and I don't know which patient now holds the honor of most senior member.  From a medical standpoint, the things our patients say are at times ironic, hilarious, profound.  The staff also say things that meet that criteria.  We started a book five years ago to document the best (and worst) of it all.  Sometimes the day is hectic and later on we can't recall just what was said.  Sometimes the things that are said are so amazing we want to remember it later.  It's not just the patients that make our book; it can be staff, it can be other providers, it can be  support staff.  This stuff really should be shared.  Many people in the medical field will chuckle, some will scoff.  Some will tell their co-workers what went down.  Lots of people that are simply a part of the human race can relate.  Here's the 1st of many things I can pass along.

We had a female patient in her  60's say when she was being seen for a sick visit that she felt like she was being dragged into a rat's hole backwards.

How does one have a frame of reference for this?