Musings

I get consults at the nursing home where I work and sometimes when I see the elderly patients I wonder how'd they end up there. Did they not have families to take care of them? Where they an awful person in the past that no one would take care of them? What brought them to a place like this. The nursing home is a sad place to be.

You see patient's lined up in a large common room, the television is on but no one is watching. Sometimes the ambulatory patient's are sitting in a circle at the atrium straing at each other, no one saying anything, waiting for the time to pass by. I always wonder what are they thinking of at that moment.

I feel bad when I see them like that. In my own ltitle way, I try to make sure I spend a few extra moments talking to my patients there, hold there hands and crack a joke or two to make them smile.

Getting old can suck sometimes.