bus, and her sittercise exercise class was quite boring. I had tons of new ideas and had put out the new activity calendar the previous Friday in anticipation of my starting my new position on Monday. I entered the facility in dress pants blouse and running shoes for the first time without scrubs and a stethoscope. I was attacked almost upon entering the door the manager told me they were up in arms about the activity calendar because they didn’t know what some of the things were and wanted to know what Integrated Exercise was at 9a.m. I took the microphone in the dining room as was tradition with sweaty shaking hands I went over the activities for the day and also posted them on the giant grease board I had purchased. I put out written handouts to those I knew had hearing difficulties as I knew they wouldn’t hear my microphone explanation. I went to my office threw down my bag and coat and went to my car to get my wagon which I pulled in full of instruments. I set up my activity room for the new version of sittercise. The activity room was huge and had a full kitchen. I had a separate adjacent office with desk, cabinets and window and a huge foyer to hold events as well as a chapel. I had all the chairs arranged around the room in semicircular pattern and put an instrument on each chair; I had tambourines, triangles, wood blocks, and bells. I put a giant koosh ball under each seat and set up my cd player and was waiting with excitement for the residents to arrive after breakfast at 9am. They started to filter in at 8:40 a.m. and the noise level rose rapidly, as they saw the instruments and the bright colored hairy balls as they were nervous because they needed their exercise. I had 61 in attendance my first day and Bonnie usually had 45 and I explained we would do a band warm up with instruments marching to Grand ‘Ole Flag and those who needed to sit could sit and move their feet and play their instruments. I looked out to a sea of blank horrified stares. There was silence and then Floyd broke the silence and said, “Can I have symbols I like them better.” There was a feeding frenzy of trading instruments, and then we all stood and played and began to march for 3 minutes to the song. It was at that moment I knew I had them as they were laughing at me with my bells and high stepping moves as they beat drums, banged wood blocks and shook bells. The executive chef, housekeeper, and my best friend the maintenance man stood in the doorway and laughed until they couldn’t stand and my retired school teacher Kay walked to the door were they laughed with her walker loaded with 3 instruments and instructed them to play too. We moved onto sitting exercises in chair that were familiar, then standing, and then hand exercises with the Koosh Balls for arthritis which was a big hit and there was lots of swapping of balls for color preferences. The 30 minutes flew by and at the end Virginia stood up and there was silence as she was 86 and known to state her opinion freely. She told me that when she came in she wanted to leave as she felt like she entered a kindergarten room and was insulted but she realized she got a lot more exercise and anyone who had to be as crazy as me to come up with such an idea couldn’t be all bad. A minute later I was pelted with Koosh Balls as they exited. The rest of the day went the same them daring me not to change things but if they dared to experience something new they felt more in control of their lives and more alive. The laughter was infectious and I promised I wouldn’t change Bingo and if I hadn’t had a sense of humor I would have been dead in the water the minute I walked in the door that first day. I believe it was a case of nothing ventured nothing gained for the first couple months and I constantly was grateful for my sense of humor and Floyd’s ability to break the silence in a room.
The second element that was vital for my survival in the jungle was knowledge of the limitations that come with geriatric aging. I knew how to adapt activities for visual learners, auditory learners, and
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