This is the last week on geriatrics and I don't know how I've failed to capture some of my most endearing moments with the Lansing seniors I've encountered... these were my favorite of today.
1. OLDEST PATIENT SO FAR - at 104 years old. Consider this, she is a super super super centarian and she was alive in 1907. That's just amazing in and of itself. My goal at the end of important health things was to dispel rumors I had heard at the nursing home hence the following conversation:
ME: "So when you turned 100 did you really get a letter from the President? Rumor has it that's the big 100th birthday present."
PATIENT: "Oh yes! I got a letter from George and Laura Bush... but I'm sure it was really Laura's idea, he was probably too busy."
Hilarious.
2. MOST INTERESTING (so far!): Meeting a patient who served under General Patton* in the 2nd Armored division of the North African invasion. He did 9 tours in Europe and travelled all over from North Africa to Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. Get this, he was present in the very hospital at the same time as the controversial slap of Patton took place. He KNEW Patton and he KNEW this "yellow-bellied" 'kid' who per pt probably was not actually slapped and had even asked pt how pt wasn't scared to go to war. That's like 2 degrees to a legend - how wild is that?!
*thank you George C Scott for helping me remember most of what I know about Patton :)
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