Saturday, July 21, 2007

Fanny Alarm


I went to visit my mother last week in the nursing home - her 92nd birthday. She has been falling alot lately so the staff of the nursing home put her on a "fanny alarm" - when she stands up a nasty "beep beep beep" goes off. Kind of like the sound of a big truck backing up. This noise alerts the staff that she's now mobile and they should watch for her.


I was relating this story to my youngest daughter who is a nurse in a hospital and she related that her unit got to test some, "new fanny alarms". Side note: I call them "fanny alarms, but they are called Tab Alarms."


One of the alarms played supercalifragilisticexpialidosous - which no one liked because everyone ended up with the song in their head. Another alarm utilized the recorded voice of a loved one. When the patient would get up, the alarm would say, "Dad, this is Stephanie, please sit down."


The fisrt time it was used "Dad" turned around quick to see his daughter (the voice) and fell right on his butt. So much for modern technology. The standard annoying beep won the day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I envy your good fortune to have at least one parent alive, albeit 92. How wonderful that must be. My father died when I was 15 and my mother died when I was 47. I wish I could go to an assisted living home and visit either parent. Ask them more questions about my family history. And most of all, listen and retain the precious moments. Spend as much time as possible and then some more. For it is when they have died, you'll wish for one more day to ask that one more question. Hugs are free and hold so much emotion. Your friend, RLK