Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Presbycusis and Dementia

A couple of nights ago, they brought in a 92 year old man from a nearby geriatric psych unit. He had fallen and sustained a 2cm laceration on his face. The poor old guy was deaf as a door nail, and presumably quite demented since he was an inpatient at the psych ward for those whose true age lies only in carbon dating technology.

As I worked on the guy, I explained what I was doing (by yelling so he could hear me). I was kinda bored, so I started asking him about World War II (Dr. X will recall that this was the war in which our respective "motherlands" kicked Nazi ass). The old guy told me in very lucid details about his experiences as an infantry soldier across the Pacific theater ultimately being stationed in Japan as a Military Policeman (MP) after the war. He then told me all about how he used his GI bill to obtain his educational degrees and then worked for years in education and educational administration.

As we talked and yelled back and forth at each other, I was struck by how seemingly normal this old dad was.

I finished my suturing, and he asked me if there would be a scar, I assured him that his wound would not scar (I'm just that good). "So, my face looks normal now?" he asked. I explained that he had 6 small sutures above his eyebrow, as well as some swelling from the fall and the injected Lidocaine, but once it was healed in about a week, it should look normal.

"Boy are my Mom and Dad gonna be surprised!" he exclaimed.

As I left the room laughing, I whispered to my nurse "yeah, they're going to be very surprised. In fact I'll bet the first thing they say is 'Hey, what the fuck are we doing still alive'!!!"

For all reasons to love EM, the stories are by far the best reason.

19 comments:

  1. Don't laugh. Sounds to me like he was probably talking with his parents everyday.

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  2. me and dr x are all alone here for a bit (with etotheipi but he doesn't really count as a person) and all of a sudden it's like a writer's convention. hope this guy's parents were able to come get him from the ER after you stitched him up.

    let me go ahead and ask so the anonymi don't have to...

    "hey erdoc85, did you say this patient's parents were still alive? i mean it seems to me like they might be from your post. that would make them, like, really old right? like almost a hundred right? do people get that old?"

    peace

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  3. 911: If you're going to parrot the anons, then you also need to criticize me for not being empathetic to his approx 115 year old parents. Then you need to make some parting shot about why modern medicine needs complete overhaul because of our cynicism and heartlessness.

    Анонимные авторы сосут большие шары осла

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  4. erdoc: when you translate that on babelfish balls translates as "spheres."

    HAHA!

    Missed ya.

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  5. Yeah, it wouldn't translate "balls, testicles, nards, nads, cullions, pocket billiards, mountain oysters, family jewels, or ballocks".....all I could get was "spheres".

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  6. Oh my god...you guys are so heartless and cruel...you all should be fired.....

    Just kidding (or maybe not)

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  7. My 96 year old great-great aunt was similar--her memory stopped sometime in her 30's. She would get upset with something and announce that she was going to go visit her mother down the street. She knew she was 96, when asked how old her mother was she would say "Goodness, Mother must be almost 100!"

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  8. Google translate gives me "balls". Yayy google!

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  9. 911, if you're going to channel the anons, then you have to use capital letters. It's in the parroting handbook, and you hafta follow the rules.

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  10. Well, at least 911 speakin' FOR the Anonymi seems to be keepin' them quiet. Or on they on Haldol, again?

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  11. I updated my 'probably was not actually pneumonia' on my blog and just for kicks I added a new symptom of hearing loss in my right ear confirmed with an audiolgist appointment today. I think I should make a new game called What the Hell is Wrong With Tori? Except that I seem to be already playing it. And there seems to be no prize from all of this.

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  12. Hi - I hope you all don't mind that I linked your Throckmorton post and your MDOD blog to my current post. Thanks and let me know if you prefer that I didn't. But...please oh please let me keep the Throckmorton. ;)

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  13. pocket billards? haha, i just learned a few more slang names!

    ps: I'm engaged! sorry, im stuck in the damn hospital (yay for teaching hospitals with wireless internet!!!), i dont get to share it with many people...so ive been forced to share the news with my blog friends...hehe

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  14. Congrats emm!

    I hope your marriage turns out to be everything I wanted mine to be!

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  15. Okay, back to your 92-year-old patient: why did you assume the remark about mom and dad was serious? Could he have been attempting, not very cleverly because he's out of practice, a joke, which you were probably too busy/too tired to figure out? That's not a put-down on you, by the way.

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  17. Marg: He wasn't kidding.

    After the suturing, he started talking about his brothers and sisters and how they couldn't get out of the military etc. Once we stopped engaging him in questions about the 1940's, he really started babbling. His brain was trapped in his youth.

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