Showing Up

I saw AM yesterday (Nice initials, I think). He has a parkinsonian like disorder that can't really be treated. He looks like a person with parkinson's: can't walk, move very well, speak well. I saw another person like that in the hospital last week, also. The medications for Parkinson's don't work for them. AM comes in every four months. I'm not sure why he does that, since there's no treatment for him. I've already tried everything that there is. He went for a second opinion to Hopkins. They told him what I told him. Once, I told him that he could come back on a PRN basis (whenever he wants to, but we don't make an appointment). He came back in two months. There wasn't anything new, really. He had fallen, but not any worse than all of the other falls. (He falls often.) So I decided to have him come back in three months. Then, I changed it to four months. I kind of know that if I change it to PRN again, he'll come back in pretty quickly. He is getting slowly worse.
I saw J yesterday. She has severe back pain. She gets injections every three months. Then, she can walk around the house, and even a little outside. She uses a wheelchair for any distance. After about two and a half to three months, the pain worsens and she can't walk around the house. She's been to pain management, but they didn't really help her that much. She had gone through a big depression when she went to the ALF place. Her and her husband hated it. They moved back to their house. Now they're doing a lot better.
I saw S too. She's 27 and had a brain tumor taken out last year. She saw me for pain, also. I gave her Lyrica, because it's nerve pain. She's doing very well now. She has just a touch of pain at this point, but it's very tolerable. She had a miscarriage, right before the brain tumor diagnosis. She's doing well. The surgeon told her she can go back to work. I told her she can back to work also. It turns out she didn't like her job at the hospital though. So she's going to find another job.
AM and MM didn't show up yesterday. RS rescheduled.
Some people show up. Some people don't show up. One time, someone somewhere said that showing up is 90% of it. I don't think that's right. I think it is really "Being there is 90% of it." People can show up and not really be there. That shouldn't count. A lot of people say it's "hanging in there". I don't really think it's that, either. That's more like "showing up" than it is like "being there". I respond "Well, that's better than falling out of there." It is better than that. But it's not the best of all. If you're really there, then you can make the best of it. That's how I grouped those three: AM, JH, and S. They are really there. They are making the best of what it is.