Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

I can't imagine dealing with this kind of job, Angela. It sure takes a lot of courage and patience. The only time I was in a situation where my work was really hard was on the ship. For example, during embarkation day I had a job to push extremely fat people in the wheelchair on the gangway (a hallway to the ship's entrance) which was most of the time uphill because the entrance on the ship was mostly on deck 3, get them into the elevator and push down the corridor to their room. Imagine a 60kg woman pushing 120kg man/woman. Then I run into threshold and can't push them over. Most of them couldn't move at all from the chair while the others did stand up so I can push the wheelchair alone and they'd sit back as soon as I did. I felt like a fucking horse. I also never showed any kind of annoyance toward their health situation because I understood that the weight of 120kg has nothing to do with their laziness or something similar. It's an illness. Sometimes I saw their faces reveal annoyance for having me pushing them, sometimes I felt they're feeling ashamed.. I don't know... and, like Charlie said, this all happened in a good place. Like, they're heading to the Bahamas or whatever and yet they don't feel good about themselves. If this illness doesn't make them feel good while on vacation then I can't imagine how extremely depressive it is to be stuck in a nursing home or at the hospital.

I guess it also depends on how people deal with their defects. My uncle is in the hospital, they cut his leg off three days ago and he's behaving exactly like a woman from your story. He's a stubborn asshole who doesn't want anyone's help or anything at all from this life. He was like this even before he got stuck in the hospital so not even this extreme health condition didn't change him. He's giving a hard time to the doctors, to his wife and kids, he doesn't want to eat or cooperate. He says he wants to die. He supposed to be released today but he's in such bad condition that the doctor said they'll put him in the hospice instead. And absolutely no one can do anything about having him behave differently.

Keep your head up and try to remain approachable and professional for the others. And most of all don't lose yourself in that job. From my previous work experience, I can say I always tried to find something in common with difficult people. When I saw I couldn't, I dealt with them superficially.