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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Jive bunny, Jive granny.

I once had an old lady in my clinic room.

This is not unusual. most of my patients are old.

This lady was unusual though. She was brought in by her daughter. Her daughter was already old , about 60, and the patient , her mom, was somewhere over 90.

Pretty cool I thought. To be 90. Also she had pink stockings on. I thought this was particularly cool.

I made a mental note to wear pink stockings when I was 90.

Anyhow - that's was not what made her unusual. She was unusual in that she was smiling! She was smiling and laughing and joking around with me. I loved it. I asked her daughter if she had any symptoms bothering her, and they both emphatically shouted, "NO!".
And she didn't.
All her bloodwork was normal, her blood pressure was fine and her glucose levels were acceptable. This lady, at 90, was the picture of health.

I must have had some kind of incredulous look on my face, because the old lady suddenly jumped out of her chair and said through her toothless mouth," Hey Doc, you don't believe me hey? Watch this!"

She suddenly started twisting away, like we did last summer, in my consultation room. All the while letting out whoops of delight and going , "Hay-yo! Hay- yo! Look at my hips, look at my hips! They've still got the mooooves. Look at my mooooves!" (she said moves, like that, with four O's.)

That was awesome. Oh man - I didn't want her to leave. This funny old pink-stockinged 90 year old grooving to the tunes in her head in my office.

I considered testing her for dementia. Then I thought, Nah, stop being a cynical doctor for a while, Dr S, and just believe that this lady still has a great zest for life.


I figured that if her daughter didn't mention anything then there wasn't a problem. I'm certain that once she starts grooving naked in the middle of the living room while guests are over I'll see her back in my clinic. Until then, I'd just add some supplements to her meds and spare her the barrage of testing...

You go Jive granny!

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