Early Old Age

The patient is an elderly, emaciated woman with thin, crepey skin hanging loosely from her tiny bird-like bones. Her fragile, tissue paper skin tears with just the slightest friction and despite our best efforts, she got a pressure sore from her hip bones digging into the mattress.

This is nothing unusual, nor is the fact that we are treating her for a broken hip. What is unusual is how she broke her hip. She was riding her dirt-bike down a mountain and crashed. When I first saw her, I thought for sure that she was in her 70's, but the chart listed her age as mid-50's. It just had to be a mistake, but it wasn't.

She has anorexia nervosa, is severely malnourished and has spent a lifetime in the sun. Taken together, those factors have given her the appearance of a fragile, wizened, cachetic old lady. After looking at her, I've suddenly lost interest in being super skinny. There's something to be said for a little well-placed body fat.