REFLECTIONS
REFLECTIONS: ARE YOU A B.L.T.?
AUTHOR Teresita Bacani-Oropilla, MD
I
n a local personal care home, a beautifully
decorated living room is the first thing one
sees. Used for relaxation or welcoming vis-
itors and families of residents, it compares
to a plush tourist hotel lobby in an old
world country. Sitting in a corner, watching
people go by, reveals a microcosm of what
happens in the world of the partially mobile.
Spring having sprung and summer being nigh, people young,
middle and old pass in a parade of fashion. Some are in the shortest
of shorts or athletic gear, others in the fanciest of outfits, especially on
Sundays or holidays. They come to visit or take their loved ones out.
Meantime from their rooms emerge septa-, octa-, nonagenarians
and an occasional centenarian in their best-preserved wardrobes,
to re-experience the worlds which they had once commanded.
They go to church and meet their congregations, eat out at their
favorite restaurants and attend meetings of old colleagues, but with
a difference. Many are in wheelchairs, holding on to rollators or
supported by canes. They have lost the art or privilege of indepen-
dent locomotion.
Having been declared incapable of driving their own vehicles,
they now rely on others for inevitable trips to their doctor appoint-
ments, to pick up their medications from their pharmacy of choice
or attend rehabilitation and physical therapy sessions. Likewise, to
maintain self esteem and dignity, they need to schedule hair, man-
icure and pedicure appointments. Some feel these are impositions
on the time and efforts of caretakers and so go without.
Witness how independence goes down the drain when one is a
BLT (not a bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich!). BLT is an acronym for
-Do not BEND.
-Do not LIFT more than five pounds.
-Do not TWIST your torso.
It is truly an endurance test of patience and practice.
Try picking up an earring or a comb that has fallen on the
bathroom floor with a picker-upper thingy. Try making your bed,
tying your shoelaces, or getting a dish from the lowest kitchen shelf.
Suddenly nothing is easy. When in bed, learn to roll over as a unit
when turning or getting up lest you harm the rest of your non-col-
lapsed vertebrae! Getting in and out of the bathtub is hazardous.
Some prefer to forego this luxury and sit on an anchored bath chair
or bench for their ablutions.
When a well-groomed resident passes by with a walking aid,
applaud! These brave souls have already soldiered through that
day to attain that look! Undaunted, they have decided to savor and
enhance the assets so far retained. Not through with this earthly
life, these stalwarts are going to live it to the fullest. They may even
be headed to get a fresh, juicy B.L.T., the real kind.
“Walk a mile with my rollator,” we ask you. Appreciate your
unfettered freedom, we remind you. Keep those legs and backs
strong, while you can!
Dr. Bacani-Oropilla is a retired psychiatrist.
JUNE 2019
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