Still Tickin'

I worked through my second year of nursing school as an LPN at a subacute rehab/long term care center.  Now I know that a lot of these places have a bad rap, but this place was nice, very clean, and had staff that had been working there for years and years.  It was a pretty sweet gig.  I liked working evenings (2-10:30) because it was a little more mellow and it worked with my school schedule.  After finishing school I worked here until I got my "big break" at a hospital in a bigger city a couple hours away.  Here are some resident highlights...

We had a lady who was basically a hermit, she would rarely come out of her room and she hated most of the staff.  She would usually throw her pills on the floor when I set them in her room and tell me to get out.  She was pissed off at her daughter for putting her in there, can't really blame the lady.  My favorite memory of her was on a rare appearance when she ate dinner in the main dining room.  As she wheeled by after dinner, I told her I would bring her pills into her soon.  I was standing with another nurse passing our meds.  As she wheeled off I hear her down the hall say, "Bitches" (in her Spanish accent) followed by an evil cackle.  I'm not sure if I've ever been called a bitch by an 80 year old before.  First time for everything right?

Then there was Marianne who would come out of her room every morning with her lipstick painted on from her chin to her nostrils, and her eyebrows going in various directions.  She would come out of her room singing at the top of her lungs every day, only after using her rain stick to "calm her nerves."  A staff member who had worked there forever called Marianne "Lips."  I would loose it every time she called her that, it just seemed so wrong, but Marianne loved it and she was the only one who could call her that.  To my future children...please get my makeup tattooed if anyone starts calling me Lips.

A very special resident who had lived there for a long time, who had a developmental delay, could always find a way to make my day better.  He is about 6'5" and looks very young for his age because of his delay.  He would collect every aluminum can from staff and residents, then once a month he would take them to the recycling center to get a little money.  His friend that would pick him up would always take him to McDonalds afterward for a cheeseburger and a hamburger.  He would look forward to it all month.  He would also draw pictures from his coloring books for all the staff, I have a small pile of all the pictures he's given me over the year I worked there.  :)  Every morning he would go around the dining room and collect all the residents clothing protectors (I would watch him through the windows while I was passing meds).  Then he would sanitize his hands, and make his way with his walker over to my med cart.  He would pull up right next to me, sit on his walker, and grab the spare stethoscope I would keep for him on my cart.   I would put my stethoscope in my ears, and he would put his in his.  I would listen to my heart, and he would tap his stethoscope with his fingers.  Then we would smile at each other and say, "still tickin" :)

More to come... :)