Some days a patient reminds me of the (dwindling) reasons why I still love this job.
Dr. Grumpy: "Have you had any neck pain?"
Mr. Awesome: "I have no idea."
Dr. Grumpy: "You don't know if you have neck pain?"
Mr. Awesome: "Look, doc, I'm 89. If you pay attention to every ache and pain at my age you become a fucking hypochondriac."
Mr. Awesome is aptly named.
ReplyDeleteNot quite that many years yet, but approaching at a rapid rate. I do check for the usual aches and pains on awakening - just to make sure I am awake and not recently deceased. Learned the hard way that if something that used to be on the list suddenly disappears it could be a sign of trouble. So all those twinges have become fast friends. It's the new interlopers and the deserters I worry about.
ReplyDeletestay safe.
Hah! My grandmother lived to be 85 years old and she said to me (I'm one of her granddaughters)"My memory doesn't work like it used to, I don't feel well most of the time, but I'm old, so that's the way it is". I miss her. For being 'old' she was pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteYep, pretty much, your patient is awesome.
ReplyDeleteThat's going to be my new motto (well, I'm not close to 89, but I hope I remember it as I get closer).
ReplyDeleteMy mother age 92, living alone in her own home until about 3 months ago, had to go into a rehab, to get back on her feet--so now going home again--which she greatly wants--said to me, I have to take better care of myself so that doesn't happen again, but it seems like in the last year everything has fallen apart. Rock on Mom.
ReplyDeleteHahahahah! Props to Mr. Awesome! I wish more of my patients were like him! Would make the decision to transport much easier.
ReplyDeleteTruer words were never said.
ReplyDeleteshouldn't he receive Patient Of The Month Award?
ReplyDeleteAt my age (75) all I can say after ROFLMAO is you go Mr. Awesome !!
ReplyDeleteThat is the BEST pt quote EVER!!!! It's very true though, wish more pt's would have the very same outlook
ReplyDeletePatient of the year award. After all the twenty-somethings who come in the urgent care because of twitching eyelids and a vague pain in the back or a runny nose that's lasted over a week!
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother made it to mid 90s and I can see her saying the same thing. She told her cardiologist he had to be her primary doc because she'd outlived her last two internists. He agreed to make her his exception.
Give that man a cee-gar!!! Definitely "Patient-of-the-Year"!!!
ReplyDeleteSo, SO, awesome!! Great nickname.
ReplyDeleteDude, seriously. I'm nowhere near his age, but I've got enough aches and ows that if I spent time worrying over every little one I'd be a frequent flyer pissing off the local ER.
ReplyDelete10 minutes after an ow has hit I've forgotten all about it. I'm about to hit my 10th week of apparently idiopathic vertigo and I no longer even notice when it hits. Unless it's a lasting 12 on the 1-10 pain scale, I'm not gonna remember it. It's just part of life.
I'm only 66 but my tennis partner and I laugh about every sweet young thing we defeat who starts blaming her loss on some minor injury or ailment.
ReplyDeleteAfter a certain age (and it's a lot younger than 89), most people never have a day w/o some ache, pain or other malaise.
You ignore it or you don't have a live.
That was a smile I needed today.
ReplyDeleteMr. A:
ReplyDeleteYou da man!
Grumpy: Hope you get a couple more like him! It'll keep you entertained!
I am like Moose. I'm only 30 but have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and a handful other "fun" and mostly painful disorders. I have been told by a few specialists that I should keep a pain and injury 'journal' but just can't do it as it would be too depressing to keep track of it all and my non-eds knowledgable doctors would think I was greatly over exaggerating things (I wish!). I love this guys response and going to have to remember it.
ReplyDeleteI've declared a 'no winge zone' while I'm on a family holiday. I refuse to complain, or acknowledge the symptoms of my chronic condition, except to take meds, and appropriate action to alliviate discomfort where this won't interfere with the current activity. It's working really well for all of us, though my gran was a little surprised the first time I fell over in front of her and everyone just ignored that it had happened.
ReplyDeletePretending to be well (and having everyone else pretend with me) might not be a functional long-term strategy, but it's making me feel like I have a holiday from my illness.
I want patients like that!
ReplyDeleteThe F-bomb drop done right. Take notes.
ReplyDelete5 points for Mr. Awesome. Its the truth!
ReplyDeleteMy hero! Will share this with my 80 year old father who is of the same mind-set.
ReplyDeleteCan I bottle that and hand it out to some of my hypochondriacs? Please?
ReplyDeleteMr Awesome is awesome. Reminds me of a fellow I saw a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteLast I saw he was a somewhat frail 83 year old with type two diabetes and numerous other issues, but he was a tough old logger.
At the end of a 9 hour shift, and I am very fatigued, in he walks - now 87 years old.
"I know what you are thinking," he says, "You think I believed all those rumours that you had died, so you can't imagine how glad I am to see you are still alive and practicing pharmacy."
I cracked up laughing and we had a good talk. What a character.
I once admitted (as in I was the nursing doing the admission assessment and paperwork) a 97 year old woman to the hospital after a syncopal episode. Her medication list was, "Well I do have a bottle of aspirin in the cabinet, I think I took two last fall" She answered "no" to all of my long list of questions about medical conditions. Then I asked her about back pain. "Well, when I moved up here to Castle Gardens, my grandson bought me 50 tulip bulbs. There are so many rocks there, by the time I was done planting those bulbs I had a pile this high. (about 3 feet). That night, my back did pain me some. " That was the only positive answer to all my questions. She did tell me she had lived too long, that everyone she knew had died. It turned out her heart was finally getting weak. They put her on digoxin, but she was dubious about the idea of taking a pill every day even when she felt OK. I don't know any more of her story. It was just such a contrast to all the 59 and 63 and 71 year old people on 30 medications who we usually had as patients. I wondered if those other people were just unlucky, or if just having the attitude that one didn't need pills made one healthier.
ReplyDeleteSusan Peterson