sook

everyone is cryish today. i had 3 people cry on me today. the first one was a hapless daughter who was struggling to cope with caring for her morbidly obese mother (who would rather die than accept placement in a nursing home). the next one was an 85 year old gentleman who had recently suffered a minor stroke and was struggling to come to terms with his new diagnosis, and i swear he was bawling like a baby. no matter how much we tried to reassure and comfort him, he was inconsolable and basically cried and cried for an hour. i had never seen a grown man cry so bitterly before and i felt so sad for him but i couldn’t do anything more to make him feel better, so we got a pastor to come and talk to him and i should really have gone home at this point but i went to check up on one of my other patients…… ANDDD. all i did was ask “how are you going Mrs V? feeling better from yesterday?” and omg, she started crying in front of me and i was momentarily stumped. turns out she’d had a rough day, with a million interns/registrars/students wanting to talk to her and examine her when she was quite short of breath and achey all over. i found myself feeling quite uncomfortable and wanting to leave the room but i knew i couldn’t leave her just then, so i did what i should, ie. sat down and held her hand and listened to her talk for half an hour while she dabbed at her tears… i tell you, by the end of the day, i was emotionally spent. the last thing i want to do is to patronise an upset person, but three times in a day is emotional hell and back. and now i think im turning into a sook myself, digging up my emails from 2006 to find some detail i required but ending up chancing upon an email by someone, and i could feel the tears. argh ok vent over off i go to sleep!!!