Strolling with an adorable dog through my neighborhood at twilight last night was an eerie journey into the macabre. The neighbors’ yards have been scary for weeks — there’s an election going on,...
Poor, poor pitiful me
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 06, 2018
When I ask rehab patients about the precipitating event that brought them to therapy, they can at least answer the question. Maybe they tripped on a zucchini vine, slipped on a grape in the grocery store...
Escape from the blinking light
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 26, 2018
It sits on the facility reception desk, blinking bright purple as I approach, but somehow escapes my initial notice. After all, I have so very many things — urgent things, funny things, deeply profound...
Sacred moments in the therapy gym
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 14, 2018
I haven’t perched in a tree waiting for Bigfoot, or spent a morning with binoculars in a rowboat on Loch Ness. But I recently had a ringside seat for one of those elusive rehab therapy triumphs —...
Surefire warning signs that you’re living a long-term care nightmare
By
Gary Tetz
May 03, 2018
Have you ever had a long-term care nightmare? Not the waking kind, where some horrifying facility crisis leaves you muttering, “This is a nightmare.” I’m talking about a real one, the...
Behind the mask
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 03, 2017
Despite a few trivial concerns about the societal wisdom and messaging of sending our progeny door-to-door begging for poison, I try not to be a total wet blanket on the annual festivities of Halloween.
If pigs could fly
By
Gary Tetz
Apr 06, 2017
Forget all the bad news of late. It doesn’t matter. Not now that pig bladder has been found to hold healing promise for diabetic foot ulcers.
The blues drummers of long-term care
By
Gary Tetz
Jan 26, 2017
After witnessing a musical performance that left me amazed and stupefied, I went home with a flash of insight and a long-sought analogy — facility administrators are the blues drummers of long-term care.
Lessons from an orphan
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 30, 2016
It’s a disquieting visual I can’t quite get out of my mind — a single hiking boot hanging from a trail sign. Even you, a crisis-tested long-term care professional, might feel surprised and...
The long-term care Walk of Shame
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 16, 2016
I’m not aware of any formal, airline-style elite upgrade programs for long-term care residents, but when the time arrives, I hope they exist — and that I qualify.