For many, many years my grandmother "enjoyed ill health" and there are still comments that family members will make in reference to that. Sayings such as "I don't feel a bit good", "I've got the worst pain", and "I spent half the night on the edge of the bed" are definitely Granny-isms. It didn't matter how sick you might be, she could always one-up you and her health was always a favorite topic during any visit. No wonder my father would sit on the couch and pick at his ear with a knitting needle while she sat in her favorite recliner and expounded upon her recent illness! Chances are good he wanted to push it straight through his ear and into his brain thus ending the droning diatribe that seemed to go on and on.

I got to thinking about all of the above yesterday after taking a 911 call from one of our 'frequent flyers'. Franco (not his real name) is a likable enough person who loves to talk. It takes awhile to get the proper information out of him to generate a call and no matter what he's called for (swollen leg, heart palpitations, difficulty breathing) he always ends the call with a cheery "I'll wait for the ambulance downstairs!". According to whichever crew responds to Franco's latest 911 emergency, he's always jovial and talks the entire way to the hospital about just about everything except what's wrong with him that requires a trip to the emergency room. Accordingly, the staff at the hospital utter a sigh or two upon his arrival because they know that they'll never get him to stop talking.

Franco and my grandmother had a lot in common - not necessarily with health issues but with loneliness issues. I've noticed in my job many times that a 911 call is not necessarily a cry for serious medical help but a cry of loneliness from people who want to go to the hospital not entirely for treatment but for human contact. After all, an illness will generate sympathy and concern from most people and what better way to get attention then to say "help me".

I think my grandmother's ploy was to get us to visit her more often because if we thought she was ill or didn't have long to live then we were going to spend as much time with her as we could before the big crossing over. And in Franco's case, though he may have definite medical issues, maybe a lot of it is that he's had enough of sitting in his apartment by himself and this is the only way that he can go out and see people. And I think that the long, cold New England winters only add to that.

We're all only human and we all want contact with other humans. Granny certainly wasn't alone in not feeling a bit good. But how much of that was truly physical except in the way that you physically miss having other people around?  Maybe someday I'll have the right card to EMD a loneliness problem but until then, I'll offer whatever medical help I can.

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