Yesterday there were three people capable of running the MedCart and only one CNA (wiper of butts, maker of snacks). Therefore, one of the MedTechs needed to work the floor ( Read more... )

The daughter of one of our most declining residents is an active fifty-something who can't accept the reality of her mother's increasing disabilities; she has begun spending entire nights in her mother's room, and, with this raised exposure to the machinery of my workplace, has noted some flaws ( Read more... )

Dot Turner had seventy six nosebleeds that went unrecorded in the five months that she'd been a resident at The Good Life Assisted Living Facility. No one wanted to know about these nosebleeds because knowing about them might have thrown doubt on their conviction that Dot Turner was the healthiest person in the place, including staff ( Read more... )

The second youngest non-employee at my Assisted Living Facility, a resident on the Pastel Mile, died yesterday due to a problem we didn't even know she had.

I used to sneak her two packs of Oreos from the snack cart; she was always amused.

Not sad, exactly, but glad that i knew her.

I brush her teeth, by the way, because her hands (and the majority of her bones) look like this:


( Read more... )

I feed, bathe, and wipe an rheumatoid arthritis patient at the Assisted Living Facility where i work. She's completely helpless; as inflexible physically and mentally as a glacier (unless it melts - oh, no, my simile is dripping uselessly away!), she requires constant care ( Read more... )

A colonoscopy was being prepped for - we had the male patient in the OR, on the stretcher, and we were administering hypnotic medication through his IV so that he'd go into a twilight sleep. Just when the surgeon was ready to digitally examine the rectum, the patient started making the strangest motion ( Read more... )

Yesterday, a hemicolectomy, an open cholecystectomy, a squamous skin cell cancer removal, and three EGD/colonoscopies were ably performed by my second favorite doctor; the most fun of the bunch was the hemicolectomy ( Read more... )

Time to pull an Arthur Conan Doyle and make the main protagonists go away in the convenience of story-telling. Time to remove self from the more interesting plots. I've decided to remove names and personal stuff from this livejournal and exclusively tell medical anecdotes and Assisted Living Hijinx. God knows there's enough fodder there to make ( Read more... )

I spent most of Tuesday and all of Wednesday with the incredible Archie and Co. at their estate in Fort Hill. I met the Parents and the Grandmother and watched Forrest Gump and was fixed (and fixed) banana pancakes with flowers for garnish; Archie made me a present of eight origami cranes (one of which is perched on my dash, soon to be taped in ( Read more... )