"False Teeth and Other Stuff"

For some reason I never noticed before that almost all of the seniors have beautiful teeth. Of course now I know why. I guess that's just one more advantage a volunteer has over those who do that stuff for a living. By the time I get there everyone has their teeth in, clean underwear on, and something on their feet, although not necessarily in that order. Of course as my guest blogger points out the real advantage of not being the person who takes care of them is the fact that you can take the time to talk to them. Every time I go there I hear something that makes me laugh. Sometime it's on purpose like when I asked Mike what he looked forward to at 83? Without one seconds pause he said, "84!" And sometime's the conversation is so serious that it's beyond funny. When I asked E. C. how he was feeling he said,

''Not so good. My leg's messed up"
"Oh yah what happened to your leg?"
"Got bit by a rabbit!. Yup, a rabid rabbit!"

He then went on to lambaste the old girl that I was pushing around for apparently stirring up the rabbits and causing their agressive behaviour. She was totally offended by this accusation and I had to step in to make the peace.

For the most part I am comfortable with my conversations but there are a few situations where I struggle a bit. The most common difficulty is when I'm uncertain as to whether the senior is talking about something that happened this morning, or last week, or 30 years ago. I have learned not to ask for clarification because it inevitably results in a vacant look. I also struggle sometimes with finding the fine line between showing interest in their lives and prying into them. They will generally answer any question you ask and as such I want to be careful not to even ask the wrong thing.

As to the struggle between taking the time to talk to the sick and elderly, and getting the job done quickly I would only suggest that long term success and gratification for a professional will be best acquired by erring on the side of taking the time. I know for a fact that Cory has been doing so for close to 40 years and no one has fired her yet! More importantly however I believe that taking care of the elderly is more of a vocation than a career and as such the spiritual aspects of the role should far outweigh the technical. Easy for me to say I guess. I'm just a volunteer with all the time in the world.

The reason for this lame post is twofold. First, I do have another great guest blog in my back pocket but I need to be careful not to use up my outside resources too quickly. And secondly I had initially planned a bit of candid sharing about the anxiety I deal with every day but then I chickened out. I tell you this because I still hope to do so if I can conquer the fear of sounding like an idiot. Yah, I know...too late for that! But there are still some secrets that would make me feel a little vulnerable. I'm gonna think about it for another day.

“Anxiety is fear of one's self."---Wilhelm Stekel

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."---Albert Camus

love
peter