[ photo by Flickr ]

The gift of laughter.

From the time I moved to my own apartment after graduating from Purdue up until a couple of years before he died, my Pa-paw always bought me an annual subscription to Reader's Digest. He always had the latest subscription at his house. It was one of the first magazines I remember consistently reading while growing up, and he kept me reading it monthly even when I had my own home. To this day, I cannot look at a Reader’s Digest and not think of him.

One of his favorite sections, and thus mine too, was “Laughter is the Best Medicine”. He was a man of laughter, always trying to get a good laugh out of whomever was listening.  He lived to be 88. Even in his final days, while in hospice care, he managed to give us a couple of jokes and even prank my mom and her sisters. I believe his sense of humor is what helped to carry him through even the toughest of days. The laughter he shared with others might not have necessarily extended his life, but I firmly believe it improved his quality of life.

The path can be quite rocky.

Dealing with our aging family members that have been through some sort of traumatic, life-changing event is certainly no laughing matter. Sometimes, though, laughter is just what we need in order to get through tough and stressful times.

As a physician in rehabilitation medicine, my patients have usually been through quite a rough road by the time they get to my rehabilitation facility, and they tend to have a pretty tough road ahead of them. I would be lying if I said that didn’t weigh heavily on me after a while. Some days I find myself wishing that all patients had simple diagnoses with a straightforward rehabilitation process ending with the person discharging back to home, maybe even without a cane or a walker!

Unfortunately, in this day and age of insurance requirements for inpatient rehabilitation, I am lucky to get one of these patients, let alone a rehab unit full of this type of patient. Instead, I have the tough cases. You see it on the patients’ faces and/or their family members; this is tough and will life ever be back to some semblance of what it once was? Believe it or not, that is why I decided to go into this field of medicine. I wanted to help patients and their family members travel the road of rehabilitation and, though not always getting back to the previous level of functioning, at least see that life can be fulfilling even at this new normal.

Laughter is the best medicine.

So, how do I keep my head up when I am inundated with one tough case after another? How do you as a family member keep pressing forward when you feel like you cannot see any light in the dark situation? You find something to make you laugh. Maybe it’s your prim and proper mom, who you might have wondered if she ever passed gas, let some slip out when she is up with the physical therapist. It might be your older brother with dementia who you’ve never heard say a swear word utter a string of profanities when the nurse informs him she will be drawing his blood. Let me be clear, in these situations, you are not actually laughing at the patient, but rather, you are finding some humor in the irony of the situation. 

I have cared for several patients with brain injuries. Is the brain injury humorous? Absolutely not! However, some of the funniest things I have had patients say to me are from those who have had a brain injury. I will generally try to stifle my laughter in the moment but will then draw on it later when I am alone or talking with a colleague. If the comment is inappropriate, I will correct the patient, gently reminding him that his line of conversation is out of line. Later, however, I will chuckle to myself. These moments of comic relief can provide a brief respite from an often constant barrage of negativity. The same goes for families with a loved one in hospice. As I mentioned earlier, much of my family’s time around my Pa-paw’s bed during his last days was spent recalling some of his best jokes, putting us all in stitches with laughter.

Laughter, just what the doctor ordered.

If you were to do a quick search on google scholar for laughter and medicine, it will bring up a list of 106,000 articles that have been published in scientific journals. These research articles cover laughter therapy in treating patients, the loved ones of patients, and the staff that treat patients with illnesses. There are countless studies that show the beneficial effects from laughter, both physiological and psychological. So, if you are currently in a tough medical situation, either patient or caregiver, find some humor in your situation or try to recall with someone a humorous story from the past. If you just cannot find something funny from the recent past, then at the very least, go pick up a Reader’s Digest and turn to “Laughter is the Best Medicine” (presently “Funny & Humor”). 

Have a story to share of when laughter was the best medicine while going through a tough time? How about a great joke? Please share in the Comment section.

© 2020 Jessica Kluetz, DO