Tuesday, July 11, 2006
One (or 3) of my favorite patients ever...
was a 98 year old man who I had to do a cardiac scan on last fall. When I was reading his history I saw the reason his granddaughter brought him to the ER and had to laugh...
"Usually Mr. M is a quite cantankerous man, but lately he has become much more amiable. His granddaughter is concerned that this is a sign of something wrong"
The scary thing, she was right. He was having a massive heart attack. Not sure why this turned a cranky man nice, but hey whatever. Other than being a little hard of hearing he still had all of his mental facilities, and quite the sense of humor. I had a great time with him. I wondered if he was usually cantankerous to everyone, or just family because being "amiable" seemed to be something that came naturally.
Anyway, after 99 years of life, he moved on today. Not from another heart attack... he choked on a hot dog. (technically it was aspiration pneumonia as a result, but the hotdog was definitely the culprit) I have a feeling that he prolly chose to let go to at this time because he thought that was a much more fun way to go than some silly MI.
Rest in Peace Mr M.
Not to take away from him, but I was just thinking of another one of my favorite patients ever. This was a woman who worked for NASA during the first moon landing. She was the press PR contact. Now Im not pro-NASA by any means, (one day I'll do my rant on the space program and how I feel about billions of dollars being spent for spacecships when we have people homeless and without healthcare here...) but the fact that during that era, that a WOMAN had such an important position for what I suspect was a boys club at the time impresses the shit out of me.
I confess that I sometimes lie to patients. If they are boring or annoying I will tell them they cant talk at all during their scan. Sometimes this is true, but often it's not. Does this make me a bitch? I have to say though, I was so glad that I didnt tell this woman that. Her scan was almost 2 hours long and we talked the whole time and I was so disappointed when it was over.
One last cool patient just popped into my mind and then Ill stop. This guy was in his 80's and was talking about some trip he was on and mentioned working on his laptop during his layover. I think it's great that someone at that age embraced new technologies, as so many, even younger than he is, find it intimidating. He and I talked for about an hour and his accoplishments and stories were mindblowing.
Patients like these make me so sad that I have no grandparents left. I wonder if I can convince one of them to adopt me??
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I love reading about your patients!
and no I dont think your work practices on annoying people makes you a bitch atall!
I dont have any grands left either. I love old folks. My fave visits are to the rest home patients.