Scary Experience

Just in time for Halloween. I sure hope that this is the only scare I get for a loooong time.

TRUE STORY:

Last week Friday, I was sent to a patient's house to provide treatment. This patient was new so I have never treated him before. I am used to treating elderly people so when I saw this patient I was a little thrown off. This man was in his 40's nearing his 50's.
I get to the patient's house and he lets me in. There was already a lady there trying to get some paperwork completed. Once he saw me he immediately started insisting to the other lady that he couldn't finish the paperwork right now and he continuously told her that he "really needed to do his exercises". I tried to tell the lady that I could come back a little later so that she could finish up but he interrupted and started ushering her out of his house.

Once she was gone, we sat at the kitchen table and I mentioned about how he really wanted her out of there. He explained that she had been there a couple of times before but they were always interrupted and she couldn't finish her paperwork. I told him that we could call her back and they could get the paperwork out of the way but he just waved that idea off.

I started by telling him, "So, tell me what's going on and what would you like me to help you with?"
He looked at me and then started telling me about how he has problems controlling his anger and that he was taking anger management classes. He started showing me the paperwork. Then he continued to tell me about how he was having problems with his marriage and how he has been married for 2 yrs now but his wife only comes over at noon and leaves before 9pm. She doesn't even stay the night with him. (RED FLAG) Was this supposed to be a hint?

THEN, he starts telling me about how he has sexual issues and that he was always at the strip clubs.

WHAT THA FUCK?

As he was telling me all of this I was just sitting at the table wondering WHY he was telling me this. I was only there to provide rehab in the form of exercises, balance activities and gait training.
He started wiping his forehead and saying how hot it was in there and then he gets up and turns on the A/C. He comes back and starts GLARING at me from across the table. I got an eerie chill that went down my spine.

I'm getting some really bad vibes from him and I'm starting to feel uncomfortable. Every time I look down at my paper to write something and then look back up at him, I notice that he is looking at me up and down as if he were undressing me with his eyes.

I'm guessing he's thinking that his home has turned into his own personal strip joint.

I needed to get his blood pressure and pulse so I had to get close enough to him. He was sitting in a chair and I had to kneel next to him and I could see and feel him leaning close and trying to look down my scrub top.
HIS PULSE WAS RACING.

I was getting really nervous, but I was a little afraid to say anything because I didn't know if I would say or do anything that might set off his anger problem.
He kept leaving the room and coming back and every time he did that I was afraid that he was going to sneak up on me and bash me over the head with something.
I was really starting to get scared.
He wouldn't stop looking at me.

We were halfway through his therapy and I mentioned that we needed to do some gait training with he walker. He got it out of the closet and I noticed that the handles were a little too high for him. I needed to adjust them. I got the walker and started adjusting it when he started inching himself closer and closer. I swear he could probably hear my heart. He had to have been able to because I could feel his breath on my neck. It wasn't like he was blowing out candles.

BREATHE, SHEILA....BREATHE.
And get out of my personal space you freak!

I started backing away and discreetly trying to maintain some distance between us. And his facial expression started to change.

I honestly started wondering if I were going to make it out of this guys house alive. I started looking for the exits. I told him that we were going to walk outside for fresh air.
Once outside I started looking for witnesses and waving at them so that SOMEONE would know that I was there.

I completed the therapy and got out of there as fast as I could. I didn't look back.
I had parked my car facing away from his house so when I got in and looked in my rear view mirror.....and he was peering at me through his window.

::shudder::

I drove straight to my office and told them that I WAS NOT going back there. That was fine with them. They reassigned that patient to someone else (a male) and that was that.

I called my supervising PT and told him about what happened. He said I made a good call. He didn't get that vibe from him. But he did notice that his attitude changed to being agitated when the PT told him that he wasn't going to be giving him a massage to ease his pain and that he was going to need to be doing some exercises for strengthening. He said that the patient got mad and told him that he WAS NOT going to be doing any exercises.

(But there he was ushering the other lady out of the house telling her he really needed to do his exercises when I got there)

Honestly people, I know it doesn't sound scary on paper but I was definitely getting a deranged serial killer vibe from this person. I don't ever underestimate any one's mental instability. You never know what is going on in some one's mind. I am constantly in someone else's house...alone with that person and there is always a risk involved.

Now, had this been an elderly man who was simply a perv....I could've taken him.