This month at the nursing home has been weird. We have gotten a lot of knew admissions, which is good, but in order for people to be admitted someone either has to die or go home. Sadly this is how a nursing home works. You get a new resident, you get attached to a resident, the resident leaves in some way. The most recent case of this happening was a guy Ill call TK. TK was a war veteran who was in the nursing home. I quickly grew close with TK as we had a lot of the same interests. We both liked politics, sports, and music. We would talk about these things for hours at a time. I would go in on my days off just to see how TK was doing. Sadly like many people in nursing homes TK had very little family, because of this I was like his family like how I am to many other residents. TK had social anxiety and did not like to leave his room, so we would talk about how I have social anxiety and the things I do to be able to socialize with people. The last couple of weeks I was able to get TK out of his room to do things like bowling, listen to music, or even just talk to other residents. From what I could tell TK was happy and healthy (for someone in a nursing home). Sadly TK had a brain bleed. They don’t know why or how he got the brain bleed. He went to the hospital and he came back on hospice (end of life care). When he came back he acquired double lung pneumonia because his lungs were not properly functioning from the brain bleed. When I went to work last Saturday I was able to see him and he had the death rattle. This meant that he was going to die pretty soon. I was able to meet his niece and nephews who were his only family remaining. They told me how much my visits meant to him. They told me how I helped with his depression and he wanted to stay alive so he could see me again. I realized that I wasn’t just visiting people, I was giving them a reason to live.
This month has showed me how big of an impact I can have on a persons life. I hope that you feel the same and will be an impact on another person.