Pop’s Page

Do you remember when you were 7 years old going on 8? When someone asked you your age, you wouldn’t say “seven”; instead you’d say “seven and a half.” As youngsters we always wanted people to know that we weren’t all that young. Then maybe around 30 we stopped rounding up and in fact started rounding down. Being 30 something was definitely considered “being over the hill.” So we wanted to be as close to the hill as possible.

I was reminded of all this yesterday as I accompanied mom (aka “Grandma Tex”) to the Baylor Hillside Senior Healthcare Center. The geriatrics center of the main Baylor facility had suggested that mom might benefit from using a cane to help in some balance problems that she had last Fall. As she filled out the inevitable paperwork that would get her started in “cane training” at this center, I couldn’t help but note that she listed her age as “98 1/2″. It looks like mom had come full circle. Now as she nears 99 she is proud of how old she is. And we are too. At 98 (and a half) she is clearly the sharpest member of our family, and on a relative basis (as events were to prove) possibly the spryist. And oh yes, certainly the healthiest. I’ll never forget the remark her doctor made some years back. After her annual physical examination he said, “the Lord sure has blessed you.” And she herself echoes this comment in answering those who ask her: “what’s your secret?”

But back to the Hillside Center. Our purpose there, as I mentioned, was to provide mom some instruction in how to use her new “quad cane” that Baylor had supplied to her. This is one of those aluminum canes with 4 feet which are supposed to be more stable than the usual “single point” cane. I dropped mom off at the door of the center while I found a place to park. In her usual fashion, unaided–and without her new cane–she briskly entered the door and moved to the registration desk. This left me to park and then enter the waiting room carrying her new cane. I could see the raised eyebrows. “Who was bringing whom to get therapy?” We finally made our way into the “wellness facility” where we met with a physical therapist to help mom get checked out with her cane. After getting a profile of mom’s issues, and testing her on movement capabilities, she decided to have mom “run the cane couse.” This was nothing complicated: just a straight line marked by a piece of masking tape on the carpeted floor. First, mom was to walk unaided by cane the complete course while the therapist timed her. I could see by mom’s facial expression that she regarded this as a kind of challenge. Sure enough, she walked about as fast as I’ve seen her recently and did the course in record time. I could tell the therapist was starting to wonder why we were here. Next, mom walked the course using the new quad cane. The therapist clicked off the time, and with arched eyebrows noted: “you were faster without the cane. Furthermore, you never let all four feet touch the floor. It appears the ‘quad’ isn’t of much use to you.”

After some discussion we concluded that a single point cane might be a better choice, and the therapist said she would make arrangements to do a swap, even though I’m not sure she wasn’t convinced that a “zero point” cane would be just as good. That done, we left the center the way we came in, but this time mom was carrying the cane. I noticed she kept it about an inch off the floor the entire journey. To me this gave new meaning to that old expression: “raising cane.”