CLINTON ST. QUARTERLY Some guys when they first come in there—You’d be amazed! They have a lot of dignity and still want to take care of themselves. You wouldn’t think by the way they act—they can’t talk and stuff—that they wouldn’t really care that much. I guess for some people it’s ingrained— WC Who else did you take care of on your shift? Joe One guy was 51. He fell off a telephone pole, and he was brain-damaged. Since then, he couldn’t put sentences together. He could only speak like one word at a time, but he was real intelligent. We’d play pool together—He took care of himself. He lived with the oldest guy on the ward who was a 101. The 101-Year-Old Man WC He seems like an interesting character. What was his first name? Joe Jack. WC You said you showered him? You had to give the patients showers? Joe They have to get showers two times a week. Tuesday and Thursday. Some guys weren’t aware of it—and some guys didn’t like it. Like Jack didn’t like it! He hated it! WC He thought he was going to the gas ovens! Joe He was really protective of himself. He slept with two big pillows. He had real nice canes, and he stuck them underneath his pillows at night so no one would steal them. But he was real generous. I mean he was a real great guy! He’d always be giving you cookies—His daughter and some of his sons—He had nine kids—would come and visit and leave him stuff. They’d bring him clothes. But you could tell he was really thrifty and miserly. Like with his clothes, he really didn’t want to change ’em, even if they were dirty—because he’d worry where he’d get the next pair from! Joe said Jack worked as a carpenter. He had been in the home about 9 or 10 years. “ He had a colostemy—a hole in his stomach where the shit came out,” Joe mentions softly. WC Did you get disgusted by your job? I t ’s an unusual one. You’re only about 20 years old. Joe The smell of shit gets on your nerves. Sometimes you open up their Attends, and there’s shit all up their stomach, and everything. Shit—it does something to you, man! (His voice rises.) It gets you pissed off! When someone shits in their pants, I just get pissed off! WC You ’re angry at the person? Joe I ’m angry. And sometimes the person feels the anger—I don’t try to take it out on anyone. Guz I don’t like to deal with shit. Sure, I hate it! (We both laugh.) WC Then why ’re you working in a nursing home? Joe I need it to survive. Necessary WC Do you think where you worked was a good home? Joe Do I think it was a good home? I don’t think nursing homes period are good! WC Well, what are you gonna do with people—in this condition? Joe I don’t know—KILL ’EM! WC No, but what—? (We both laugh at the absurdity of the idea.) Joe Keep ’em at home! There was this one guy—he was a banker. He was rich too. His wife had multiple sclerosis, and she was there. She couldn’t move anything below her waist—But he’d come to visit her. As rich as he is, I figured he could keep her at home! WC Couldn’t he keep himself at home? I mean, if you had the money couldn’t you basically have somebody take care of you? Joe I ’d let the realtives take care of people. Much longer than they do. They quit too soon. Is Senility Inevitable? Elderly Americans, those past 65, fear it, but of the 24 million who are that old only 5 to 10 percent will develop Alzheimer’s disease. Fifteen to 30 percent of so-called senile persons may be suffering from malnutrition, infection, reactions to medicines, or diseases other than that of the brain. An elderly person who seems to be senile may be feeling depression at the death of a spouse, be reacting to a nursing home, or feeling extreme loneliness. In fact, most old people don’t become senile. Many elderly persons live into their 80’s and 90’s, happy and mentally alert. Other Duties WC So you change diapers? You talk with people. Straighten their pillows. What else do you do? Joe When you go there in the morning, you have to get ’em up! You have to wake ’em up for breakfast. Some people eat in bed, some people have to be fed. You have 3 or 4 showers to give every morning. Then carts come, and you feed breakfast. Afterwards you get more people up. You have to get the person dressed. Sometimes they can’t do a single thing for themselves. Sometimes they’ll resist, in a way. You’ll have to get their shirts on, and their socks and shoes. Some guys—their legs’ll weight about a 100 pounds! You have to lift them up and put their socks on. I t ’s pretty hard. (He chuckles thinking about i t .) WC Do everything, right? Joe Their rooms usually have two people in ’em. They have a bed and a chair. Then there’s a big sun room, at the end of the hall. WC Do you try to get people down to the sun room once a day? Joe Oh, some people like to go down there. Others just like to sit in their own rooms—and be left alone. WC What’s the rest of your day like? Do you watch them? 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