it's funny that one of the only things that gets me motivated enough to write one of these is when a friend writes one. although i spend a majority of the days thinking about things like: 1)how you can be an asshole to somebody and they still find you to be the nicest person they've come in contact with, 2)trying to understand why some people REFUSE to obey a doctors orders, even when it comes to something as simple as "don't drink more than two bottles of water a day," and 3) the best way to handle someone who only says "shoot me, let me die," and that's what i'll talk about today.

so... people get old, right? unless you're ben button. or one of the lost boys from neverland. but since nobody is, i'm right. we get old. with age comes all kinds of countless problems. life is like a game of 52 card pickup, except instead of numbers and 2D people, it's diseases and problems with (usually) one's immune system. on tap today was an elderly woman with no "serious" problems. when i say "serious" i mean that she had no direct illness that was slowly killing her, nor did she have any type of incapacitating disease that would promote the onset of such. this woman recently had surgery. now yes, we all know that old people and surgery don't mix most of the time due to infections, slow healing due to a decreased immune response, and the threat of anesthesia on such a fragile body. this lady was lucky. she was healed and healthy (for a near 100-year-old) with a good set of vitals. she did however have her mind working against her.

the only audible sounds coming from this woman were groans of pain. very few structured sentences could be made out. the primary phrase coming from her mouth however, was "shoot me." now imagine being in a room. just you and someone's grandmother (or great grandmother) whom you don't know. your job is to keep her as comfortable as possible for twenty minutes. during the entire time, all she says to you is "shoot me." her eyes staring into yours, her arms too old and frail to grab you by the collar to catalyze the action. she just looks at you and says "shoot me."

now, we've all thought about issues like euthanasia and such. people have their beliefs and their morals. there are pros and cons to each, hell it's a never-ending merry-go-round of why/why nots. but what do you do when someone truly wants to die? my belief is that someone whom has been diagnosed with any sort of dementia, Alzheimer's, or bipolar disorder should not be allowed to request their life to be ended. personally i feel that if someone is not of sound mind, as sad as it sounds, most of their rights should be taken away. there i said it. but if you've got somebody whose mind is altered, albeit terminally, they should not be able to make life-altering decisions. imagine your craziest drinking story: did you make a decision that probably wasn't the best idea? i feel like a body with an unsound mind is similar to that.

so what did i do when this woman asked me to shoot her? i did my job. i made her as comfortable as i could whilst bringing her home, simply ignoring the question. "can i raise your head more?" "are you hot or cold?" "do you need more oxygen?" it's got to be frustrating living a life where everyday all you do is wait for death to pick you out of the crowd. i hope that if i ever make it to be that age, i keep enjoying life, regardless of how miserable i am, because that's all we get.