Today was a strange day........strange and exhausting. I woke up late but made it to work on time (how does that happen), found "lost" money in my purse and one of my residents flipped out..........
For those who do not know, I am in property management. It's a good job, really social and this time of year the money is great. Most people think I just drive around in a little golf cart showing apartments and talking up the pools and fitness centers all day. Well, yes, that is part of what I do. What no one realizes is I am always carrying a 1million volt stun gun "just in case" and that apartment I just frantically ran into with my walkie talkie blaring has an unconscious (please God, let her just her be unconscious) woman laying on the living room floor. And for the record, when I take you out to look at an apartment and I keep your ID in my desk.......that's for the authorities, in case you don't bring me back. Not to mention, flooding, ceilings falling in, water heaters blowing up etc, etc. Yup, its a crazy business. I like it though, everyday is something different. There are many days I feel like I am auditioning for a reality show but I also feel like there are times when I'm really helping people. Today was a little of both.
When I got to work this morning there was a strange message from one of my older residents. He's a sweet old man, in his early 70's. He gets gout really bad so I try to check on him every now and then. His message said something about squirrels in his ceiling fan! Hmmm, I think I need to make a house call.
When I got to the apartment, the door was unlocked. He was sitting in his lazy boy in front of the TV. I could see two empty Heineken bottles and an unbelievable amount of prescriptions on a TV tray next to the lazy boy. The apartment was a little disheveled but nothing alarming at this point (other than the prescriptions). He started to tell me a story about a rat and a squirrel. Apparently he was awoken by a squirrel scratching his back and a rat was hanging from his ceiling fan! OK.
Some people would begin giggling at this point or have a look of shock and dismay on their faces but.....I've seen this before, he is having delusions. I don't know if he is having a true mental break or if the vast amount of prescription medication he is taking has caused his sweet brain to melt down. As far as he knows, he WAS woken up by a massage giving squirrel and he DID SEE a rat swinging from his ceiling fan, and I'm here, so I'm on this ride too.
I go through the apartment with him and thoroughly inspect where he thinks the squirrel is living and where the rat got in. I have seen rats and squirrels living in housing and I know the tell-tell signs.....there are no rats or squirrels in this apartment. I tell my sweet little old man that I am going to get my maintenance crew over immediately and I head back to the office to ring his next of kin, NOW!!!
But it's too late.....by the time I get back to the office, his neighbor is already on the phone saying he is screaming and throwing "snakes" out of the window. My call to his family turns into a call to Dekalb crisis. The family has to be the second call now. It takes crisis 20 minutes to get there. In the meantime he is not letting anyone in his apartment. He is so worried that someone will get bitten by "one of these demon snakes". I told you, he is just a sweet, sweet man. In his terrifying delusion, the only thing he can think is how to protect the rest of us.
To watch another human deconstruct is one of the most painful things I have ever witnessed. It is unfortunate that I have seen it more than once.....and I'm not even a shrink!
I don't know his condition tonight but I hope and pray that he is better and I hope, at some point, he regains the ability to come home.
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