As we age…

This is what all of us 70+ year olds, and those yet-to-be, have to look forward to!!

This is something that happened at an assisted living center.  The people who lived there had small apartments but they all ate at a central cafeteria. One morning one of the residents didn’t show up for breakfast so my wife went upstairs and knocked on his door to see if everything was OK. She could hear him through the door and he said that he was running late and would be down shortly, so she went back to the dining area.

An hour later he still hadn’t arrived so she went back up towards his room but found him on the stairs. He was coming down the stairs but was having a real hard time. He had a death grip on the hand rail and seemed to have trouble getting his legs to work right.

She told him she was going to call an ambulance but he told her no, he wasn’t in any pain and just wanted to have his breakfast. So she helped him the rest of the way down the stairs and he had his breakfast.

When he tried to return to his room he was completely unable to get up even the first stair step so they called an ambulance for him.

A couple hours later she called the hospital to see how he was doing.

The receptionist there said he was fine, he just had both of his legs in one side of his boxer shorts.

I am sending this to my children so that they don’t sell the house before they know all the facts.

Comments

As we age… — 12 Comments

  1. Yeah, that one sounds like it will be one of my future healthcare diagnosis. I’ll have to right it down on my ‘Check this before calling ambulance’ – them dudes are pricey !!

  2. Another one the many small perks you get when you grow old.
    Happy Christmass to all out there in the aether.

  3. As someone who has worked with the “frail elderly”…all of who are pretty tough in my opinion…I have seen such things on a regular basis. I keep saying “I could write a book”. We just laugh with the involved person, and keep moving along.

  4. Randy- I ‘might’ have a time or two…sigh

    Heltau- Ah yes, and Happy Christmas to you and yours!

    Suz- I am sure you have, and you should…after you retire… 🙂

  5. Hey Old NFO;

    Man if it gets to that stage, I’ll just get a blade or scissors and cut the dang thing off, LOL The wife has some good cutting shears 😉 might as well get some mileage out of them before she kills me

  6. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few decades visiting those places.

    We didn’t used to have them.

    What went wrong?