101

I am in pediatrics these months. However, as a Med/Peds resident I still do clinic one afternoon a week and this last week was Internal Medicine. I looked at my schedule at the date of birth on the sheet: 8/6/05. At first, that didn't seem odd. I had a lot of patients who were less than a year old. Wait! I am in Internal Medicine this afternoon. This can't be right! But it was. My patient was a 101 year old lady.

I went into the room. This was a pleasant lady sitting in a wheelchair (she wasn't disabled). She got around with a walker. When I asked her what health complaints she had, she surprised me by her reply.

"Doctor, I don't have the strength I used to. I fall asleep sitting down for a while."

In my mind, I thought that if that was all the problems I had at 101, I'd take it.

She came to see me because she had been living in a Retirement home and her money had run out. She was going to be on Medicaid and was being moved to a Nursing Home. I felt sad that she was going there. After all, this was a functional, fully cognizant female who was about to move into a home where most of the residents were demented and many dying. What could anyone do?

I finished the encounter and came home shaking my head. 101?