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Twenty-fourth Job of Bob - Nursing Assistant - Nursing Home Part II - turning 40 in an old folk's home
This entry was posted on 5/25/2010 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
My foray into the health care world was now in full gear. And, it had all started in July 1995 by noticing a note on the work table at the post office in New Glarus that read, "Ambulance drivers needed." It was now the beginning of 1996 and I was working nights at a nursing home in Madison. During the day I was in the Fire Academy at Madison Area Technical College (MATC). Three days a week I fit in a lifeguard class at the MATC pool. Funny thing is, I do not remember getting too tired. I remember getting winded swimming all the laps at 39 years old. And on top of it all I would still drive a morning school bus route for this one last semester
It was important to me then as I remember, that I undo all the illness stigma that I perceived had followed me from Texas a few years earlier. Just before leaving Texas for good, and one of the main reasons among many for leaving, was a bout with blood clots and then a bout with Meningitis a couple months later at the end of 1990. I remember thinking in 1996 as I was making this abrupt career change, that I was purging myself of the Texas blue-collar and resulting poor health experience.
To my surprise, nursing home work was extremely physical. I remember thinking sometimes after helping lift 350 pound patients, "Shit, I could have stayed a welder and come out ahead." I was getting in better physical shape from all the swimming and fire fighter training. I had also lost my limp that had lingered a couple years after the blood clot episode. At the risk of sounding sexist, the tiny girls working at the nursing home would often call me to help them lift patients. Also, because I drove a motorcycle now and then, the nursing home facilitators seemed to assign me all the motorcycle injury patients. There were a couple that stick in my head. One was a total vegetable, and very hard to care for. The other guy could get around in a wheel chair, but he was like a naughty kid and had lost a good deal of his physical and mental abilities. I got sick of some of the nurses always lecturing me about the use of helmets. Head injuries was only part of these guys' problems. They would have to have had on full body armor at the time of their mishaps to have prevented their messes. But for those that do not know the culture of nurses, none of that meant a hill of beans to the neo-nanny state mentality that has wafted into the health care world today. God forbid the subject of guns and hunting comes up in the break room.
Speaking of the break room, an epiphany struck me one night as I took a break on an upper floor patient day-room by myself and looked out the dark window at the lights of Madison. Something seemed odd and I could not put my finger on it. Then it struck me like a brick. I had started my work day at 10:00 p.m. on February 12th. I looked up at the clock on the wall and it was now 2:00 a.m. on February 13th - it was my birthday. I had turned 40 years old in a fucking nursing home.
This would be the first and last nursing home I would work in. They would have about three patent wings on each floor. Each wing had up to 30 patients in it. Two nursing assistants would work on each wing - "suppose to work" was the operative term. Often I would work on a wing alone with 30 patients. Then someone would call in sick on another wing. I could end up with 45 patients, some 300 pounds, many without their congnitive abilities.
My brief journey into the dark-side world of nursing homes would end in mid-semester. There would be other health care venues I could stick my foot into.
One old guy who was over a hundred years old (actually), remains etched in my memory. The old fellow had a bit of dementia and had to be monitored so he did not wander off. But, he was clever enough to con new nursing assistants. Once he talked a new girl into getting him ready to go home and visit his daughter. He knew if he could get to the lobby, he might be able to make a break for it. A nurse asked the nursing assistant why Hundred-year-old dude was all dressed up in the lobby. The assistant explained the daughter was coming.
"Ain't happ'n," said the nurse. "His daughter died at 80 years old...a year ago."
Annoyed, the nursing assistant began the process of returning Hundred-year-old dude to his room.
"Ain't you going to let me take a walk anyway?" Hundred-year-old dude asked.
"Hell no," she said. "You will not come back."
"Thanks for fuck'n nothing," Hundred-year-old dude said.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan
Marine Lance Corporal Adam J. VanAlstine, 21, of Superior, Wisconsin , died Saturday, February 25, 2006, from an improvised explosive device in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to Company I, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Twentynine Palms, California. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, his unit was attached to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward). The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Lance Corporal VanAlstine was the first military service person from Douglas County (which is on the shores of Lake Superior) to die in combat in more than three decades. The Journal Sentinel went on to say his father died when Adam was young, and his mother passed away a few years ago. The Journal Sentinel also noted Adam started boxing at Horton's Gym in Duluth when he was 13 years old. Wisconsin 2005 Senate Joint Resolution 81 noted Adam "fervently loved to box." The Resolution also noted VanAlstine started at the 106-pound weight class and worked himself up to 150 pounds around the time he graduated from Superior High School in 2003. Adam was only 15 days from ending his combat duty in Iraq when he was killed. He had arrived in Iraq in September of 2005 and was due to return home in April of 2006. At the time of his death Adam was survived by sisters, Julie Goodell, Jennifer VanAlstine, and Dawn Meyers, and a brother, Michael Garrity. Marine Lance Corporal Adam VanAlstine was the 52nd military service member from Wisconsin to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
96,264 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,481 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,402 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1060 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
317 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
689 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,810 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
5,831 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
18 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
142 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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