The Icarian

MATT & ANTHONY. A NURSING HOME TALE

By Karen Strickholm 08/29/2024

Welcome to this re-imagined communique, designed to update, entertain and inform you monthly! Find tales from the inside – funny, moving, shocking, thought-provoking. Also, tips on navigatiing America’s long term care jalopy, and fun tidbits, like the sketch comedy bit below.

Today we talk about being naked. Matt and Anthony, two very young students training to become nurse’s aides (CNAs), are assigned to put on an “adult brief” (as it’s euphemistically called) on me, a transitional tool needed since graduating from a bladder foley.

“WRONG Anthony, put that HERE,” Matt instructs, pointing to the pad he’s just positioned in the crease between my leg and my hoo-ha on his side. I’m laying flat between them, stark naked, legs splayed open in dissected frog position.

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“It doesn’t go there, MATT. It’s supposed to be like THIS,” Anthony retorts with full distain. A young buck epic clashing of the antlers is raging above me. The struggle is real. I however am incidental.

Other than this cleaning and diapering of my nether parts, my hoo-ha is of zero interest to them. The application of this brief, however, is EVERYTHING.

The pads now positioned, the boys are wrestling over who gets to roll a pillow case like a bandana, destined for under my belly to prevent chafing.

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FACTOID: One in four of you will be spending some significant time in a nursing home.

Anthony seizes the reins: “I’LL DO IT,” ripping the pillow case out of Matt’s hands. Matt stands momentarily defeated, but maneuvers fast to grab the brief.

“I’ve got this Anthony, LET GO OF IT,” he sneers. Matt may still have braces and teenage acne, but he’s nobody’s bitch.

We learn to savor these psychodramas that regularly unfold in these joints – it’s entertainment. Modesty is long gone. Your input is not required. You are reduced in these scenarios to a sack of flesh and bones.

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The task is finally done, crooked but I’ll take it.

“Thanks guys!” I say to their backs.

The Clash Of The Titans, Chapter Whatever, is over. On to the next room and naked broken body.

Get used to it – In and out comes this veritable parade of CNAs, nurses, med techs, wound care folks, doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, occupational and physical therapy, business office to collect money. So many people!

All in a rush, overworked, underpaid, Doing their best to navigate a hopelessly tangled bureaucracy in which profit sits at the helm, not the patients.

It’s remarkable. It’s barely managed chaos, and inside that frame, you are gonna have to get naked at some point with them all.

/fin

2024 – Another challenge with angry lungs, this time afflicted with Covid plus RSV plus pneumonia plus bilateral lower lung collapse. Then kidney stones. By holiday season am stabilized. Sleep, a lot. Steroids at long last lowered. Wounds start to heal. Accomplish standing yet again.

Next Episode:

Emotional Support Chickens, Theft! Cluck Yeah, A NURSING HOME TALE

Previously:

MARIA & WHY, A NURSING HOME TALE

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About this series… Karen Strickholm had a hidden brain tumor on her pituitary gland. The tumor she didn’t know she had until she was about 50, wound up taking her health and all she had built in life. Her tumor, diagnosed in 2008, caused a tsunami of symptoms and eventually forced her into long-term care in a nursing home and a series of hospitals. This is America, the only developed nation that does not have universal healthcare, and the only developed nation where medical debt can force you into bankruptcy. Karen became one of the financial statistics due to her medical debt, and the fact that she couldn’t get Medicare unless she was literally penniless. What made Karen different from many other people was her relentless optimism and belief that she was going to get better, would walk out of the nursing home to build a new life. She was smart, a good writer and she left behind a number of digital artifacts, which have been collected into this series. Karen relates, in her own words, her journey through the American healthcare system and the reality living penniless in a nursing home long term. Karen Strickholm died 6 April 2026 in a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, of sepsis and pneumonia. She was 67. This multimedia documentary series is her story. Medical bankruptcy • Approximately 66.5% of non-business personal bankruptcies in the U.S. were attributed to medical reasons in 2019. • 1 in 10 U.S. adults (10.5 million) have experienced medical bankruptcy since 2001. • 78% of bankrupt individuals in 2022 cited medical expenses as their primary cause. • Medical bankruptcy rates increased by 21% from 2010 to 2020, even as overall bankruptcy rates declined • The average interest rate on medical debt from bankruptcies is 21% (2022) https://worldmetrics.org/medical-bankruptcies-statistics/ Nursing home stats • On any given day, more than 1.3 million individuals receive care in a nursing home or skilled nursing facility, and a total of more than 4 million receive care each year. • 6 out of 10 residents (64%) are short-stay patients who remain in a skilled nursing facility for an average of 25 days. • Nearly four out of 10 residents (36%) are long-stay residents. These individuals often have multiple health conditions. Their average age is 76. • Nursing homes employ about 1.5 million people. • Nearly 90% are women, and 60% are people of color. • One out of every five nursing home workers is an immigrant. • There are around 15,000 nursing homes in the United States. • The average size of a nursing home is 109 beds. • Medicaid covers the cost of care for nearly two out of every three residents (63%). https://www.ahcancal.org/Data-and-Research/facts/Pages/default.aspx