My grandmother passed away last week.\u00a0 She was 89.\u00a0 I recognize a flood of emotions in my body; sadness, emptiness, confusion, but the biggest one is gratitude.\u00a0 If there is such a thing as a good passing, she had one.\u00a0 I would like to honor her by reflecting on a few of the things she taught me throughout her stay here.<\/p>\n
My grandmother had her share of struggles.\u00a0 She was a war widow and raised my mother as a single mom at a time when being a single mom was not widespread.\u00a0 She outlived two husbands and worked diligently for 32 years, always taking the bus to work.\u00a0 She did not learn to drive a car until she was 65.\u00a0 That took a great deal of courage and help from friends.\u00a0 She was fiercely independent.\u00a0 She had a strong faith.\u00a0 In short, her story, while unique to her, is probably like a good deal of the life stories of the geriatric population today.<\/p>\n
During her later years, when I was in medical school, she taught me a great deal about the geriatric population through our conversations and through my observation of her.\u00a0 These were the most profound of teachings.\u00a0 Things not included in medical texts.\u00a0 They have helped mold my patient interactions.<\/p>\n
I experienced her frustration at watching her body age.\u00a0 It was hard for her not to be able to do the things she historically could do.\u00a0 It affected her sense of pride and independence.\u00a0 Since the body still does not come with an owner\u2019s manual, I was able to aid the fear of the unknown with my medical and osteopathic knowledge.\u00a0 It helped to some degree, but mostly what she needed was just someone to listen, to hear her face her fear of aging.<\/p>\n
She related to me her sadness at watching most of her friends and immediate family pass before she did.\u00a0 It was hard for her to lose those people close to her and face the loneliness their loss left behind.\u00a0 She often shed a tear about this.\u00a0 It affected her daily.<\/p>\n
Throughout her aging process, she wanted her family and friends to believe she was doing ok.\u00a0 This would show up as her hiding her aches and pains so that she appeared in better health than she was actually experiencing.\u00a0 Much of the time, she could bluff her way through these fearful experiences.\u00a0 Sometimes she could not and would finally tell someone.\u00a0 These things for her were real, but were not addressed by her doctors.<\/p>\n
Thus, in the last few months of her life, a pain in the foot of a few days duration turned out to be a pressure ulcer between her toes and lack of balance was due to a malfunctioning pacemaker.<\/p>\n
My grandmother has changed my interactions with my patients.\u00a0 More often, I ask to hear their stories, their fears and worries, and their frustrations with their bodies.\u00a0 I slow down more.\u00a0 I do my best to just \u201cbe\u201d with them.\u00a0 I remove my \u201cdoctor\u201d shield and try to explain the processes going on with them in plain language to the best of my ability.\u00a0 \u00a0I rejoice in their successes.\u00a0 I encourage trying again with their failures.<\/p>\n
It is funny how it sometimes takes a loss to recognize the gifts of everyday life.\u00a0 Thankfully I will be able to carry my grandmother’s lessons with me in my practice and in my heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My grandmother passed away last week.\u00a0 She was 89.\u00a0 I recognize a flood of emotions in my body; sadness, emptiness, confusion, but the biggest one is gratitude.\u00a0 If there is such a thing as a good passing, she had one.\u00a0 I would like to honor her by reflecting on a few of the things she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":634,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-660","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osteopathicvision.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osteopathicvision.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osteopathicvision.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osteopathicvision.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osteopathicvision.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/osteopathicvision.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/osteopathicvision.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/660\/revisions\/835"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osteopathicvision.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osteopathicvision.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}