Hello, Folks! Summer is my favorite season and I’m going to take a little blog break and enjoy the rest of it. I’ll be back the week of September 10th (unless I can’t contain myself). Meanwhile, here’s an interesting article on end-of-life family reconciliation by Marc Agronin, MD: Struggling With an Abusive Aging Parent And … Read more
“How in the world am I going to chart this?” I wondered as I sat across from Nell, who filled her large wheelchair to overflowing. This was our second attempt at psychotherapy, which I’d discontinued a few months ago because I felt all my efforts had gone nowhere. Nell sat in her room all day, … Read more
“I had a couple of relapses this week,” Betty told me, looking ashamed. We’d been working in psychotherapy on her efforts not to snap at the aides and nurses who came to care for her. “I try not use to my call bell,” she went on. “Sometimes I sit here for two hours thinking about … Read more
Ms. Williams was humming a tune as I rolled her wheelchair toward her room for our session. “What’s that you’re singing?” I asked her. “I’m not singing, I’m humming. It’s a song I heard as a child. I can’t remember the words.” 84-year old Ms. Williams had been worryingly depressed for several weeks, and our … Read more
I hadn’t been on the North wing of the nursing home in a while, and when I saw Juanita Johnson sleeping in a geri-recliner, I turned to the nurse, aghast. “I barely recognized her! She’s lost so much weight!” “I know. It’s terrible,” the nurse replied. “We’re having her evaluated by hospice today.” Ms. … Read more
She sat quietly in her wing chair, lost in thought . Hearing my knock and spying me standing in the doorframe, she sighed. “You might as well come in, but I have nothing to say.” “That’s what you tell me every week, and then you talk my ear off!” I teased her. She smiled. “That’s … Read more
“Well,” I said to Wanda, standing up at the end of our session, “I’ll see you next week, Love.” “Okay, Honey,” she replied. I laughed. “What’s so funny?” she asked. “I called you ‘Love’ and you called me ‘Honey.’” She laughed. I walked out of the room smiling.
Paranoid Resident: “Every time they laugh at me, I put a curse on them. Me:“You put a curse on them?” Resident: “Yes. What choice do I have?”
Nan was in the hallway, looking as thin and pale as I’d ever seen her. “Are you okay? Do you feel well enough to meet today?” I’d heard in morning report that she’d been diagnosed with pneumonia. “No,” she croaked, and then hesitated. “I mean, yes.” She looked at me intently. “It might be our … Read more
I went for my annual mammogram last week, leaving work early to do so and throwing my schedule into chaos. When I arrived at the diagnostic center, the woman at the desk told me someone else would be out to talk to me. Never a good sign. The second lady took an apologetic tone. “The … Read more