Being a hospice social worker my primary job is to provide emotional support to our patients and their families. There tends to come a point in my time working with families that we reach a point of comfort, where patients and families feel free to talk about and/or tell me all kinds of things. It is amazing the dirty laundry that has been aired to me. But today one of my patients and then another patient's wife made me laugh. (The names have been changed to protect the innocent.)
When I arrived at John's house today, I knocked loudly, knowing that he is severely hard of hearing. Whne I didn't get an answer I opened the door and yelled inside, "John, I'm here to visit with you." He apparently didn't hear me. I walked into his two room house and looked over at his bed where he can usually be found, but he wasn't there. Just then, in the corner to my right, John turned around and yelled, "Wait, I just pooped and I don't have pants on!" I had to laugh as I backed into the kitchen to wait for him to get dressed.
This morning I visited with the wife of a patient who passed away about 5 months ago. She and I were talking about her recent onset of multiple health problems when she took off her shoe and asked, "Amelia, when I take my shoe off, does it look like my foot is flipping a bird." I couldn't help but laugh out loud because her foot sort of did looking like it was flipping me off. She went on to explain that she had recently had surgery on her second toe in order to correct damage done to it by arthritis. Her second toe lies flat but her big toe curls under it and causes it to sit up and appear to be making an obscene gesture. She got tickled at me laughing and before I knew it we were both crying we were laugh so hard.
So, needless to say, it has been a funny day.
~amelia
