When I think of places where having power is really important, I consider hospitals, nursing homes, and other places where power is required for people's breathing to continue to top the list. However, when we got to the nursing home today, the entire place was in the dark. No lights, no elevator, no air conditioning. Apparently Florida Power & Light needed to do some work in the area and felt that the middle of a 90 degree day was the perfect time. The geri's actually seemed to be tolerating it pretty well, but we couldn't see them all as they couldn't make up the stairs to the clinic. We had a hard time seeing the ones that did make it - I got to weigh them all by flashlight. Having an old, tottery person climb onto a scale in the dark is definitely some kind of falling hazard.
By the time we got to the dementia unit, which is completely locked-down, it was about 85 degrees inside. Nursing homes already smell a little funky, adding heat to the mix does not help. We went to see one of our patients who took a spill last week resulting in a nice black eye that gives her a tough guy trapped in a little old lady's body look. She was in rare form today insisting that everyone there treats her "like a piece of wood." She also told me that it's really hard to escape from the nursing home and proceeded to wheel herself into another patient's room at top speed. Once the nurses retrieved her she started yelling at them and asking why she's being treated like a mental patient. Hmmm.... Simultaneously, another patient was being taken to lunch when she spotted a Magic Cup at the nurses station. A Magic Cup is a high calorie ice cream-like food designed to help patients meet their caloric needs. The patient bolted away from her aid to grab the Magic Cup, rip it open, and shove her face into it - no spoon, just mouth to cup. She sat down in a chair nearby and did not respond to any of us until the Magic Cup was completely empty, at which point she declared that she was ready for lunch! I think the heat makes people a little crazier!
My day continued to be a little strange when I went to the school clinic for my pre-op workup. The workup itself was fine, but afterwards I passed a woman in the hall who was sight-impaired and walking with a guide dog (a black lab - my fave!). She asked me if I knew where medical records was. I asked some people and helped her find the right place. We were waiting for a response from the record people when her dog jumped up on me like a puppy and licked my face. I love dogs, but I thought that guide dogs weren't supposed to be so playful. She explained to me that he is in training still. I said that I thought he was pretty well behaved for a puppy, but then she said that he's actually three years old. So, why does this woman have an untrained, adult guide dog? Is that really helpful to her? He's cute and all, but I'm pretty sure he won't be dialing 911 in the event of an emergency.
Since Project Runway was a rerun tonight (boo on Bravo), I spent some time with my other favorite supermodel - Tyra - on America's Next Top Model. So far I like AJ, Anchal, and Brooke. I really don't like Megg and I'm not a huge fan of the twins. What I think would be really ideal is if Tyra and Heidi reunited - like back in the Body by Victoria days - and did a ANTM meets Project Runway combo episode. The designers could make clothes for the models to wear - that would be awesome.
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My mom and I periodically have spoken about trying to bring her yellow lab around and saying its a working dog but decided we could never pull it off because the pup likes to jump up on people and sometimes lick their faces. so i think maybe that lady was lying to you. heh heh. that's awesome.
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