People Say the Darndest Things

A glimpse at some of the awful things pts have said lately that we have laughed over.

A mother was observing me in my second session with her child. She said, "Do you have to have any special training to do this?" I replied, a little icily, "Yes, I have a masters degree." Then her motive became clear when she said, "Oh... do you need an assistant?"

Our COTA gave the Mini-Mental to a man who is in early dementia but responds well when given extra time. His sentence: "I don't trust you."

We were getting ready to evaluate an elderly lady with compression fractures and she is making some pained faces as she gets out of bed. Then she says, "Don't mind me, I just bitch a lot."

I was going over the home safety cards w/ a pt. with considerable problem solving deficits. I showed him a card of a man having a grease fire on his stove, and said "This guy has a problem." He responds, "Yeah, he does. He's black."

Female PT and aide walk into a man's room and try to get him to take a walk. Man looks at the PT and says, "I'm not going anywhere with you, fatso." Aide goes, "who are you calling fatso?!" and man says "Her! [the PT]" As some background, this PT is probably the most 'in shape' person on the staff. Aide couldn't stop laughing for ten minutes!

Same PT is starting a fitness consulting business and wearing buttons with catchy slogans to advertise. I did a double take when I read her button... I thought it said "Decide, Commit Suicide." It actually says "Decide, Commit, Succeed" but my terrified expression became the laughing point of the day.

A man I am working with is struggling to get out of bed. He looks at my nametag and says, "occupational therapist... is that another term for sadist?"