Visits to Hospital

 

Sacred Heart Medical Center


What I’m about to share represents my memories and beliefs. Peggy’s memories and beliefs might differ.

Two weeks ago to the hour, I was at Eugene’s Sacred Heart Medical Center where a pretty Hong Kong surgeon was blowing me up with carbon dioxide, driving rods into my abdomen, and using a robot to repair three hernias.

Today, I drove Peggy to Sacred Heart for an endoscopy and colonoscopy. Two hours were allotted for the procedure, so I knew that if the phone rang in less than two hours, the news would be bad. I spent those hours strolling about the hospital’s 181-acre grounds and reflecting upon the long history that Peggy and I have had in—and around—hospitals. For her, this meant a 25-year career as a BSRN (a registered nurse with a four year degree). For me it meant working as a respiratory therapy technician, a phlebotomist, an ambulance driver, and a funeral director.

Peggy’s career took her to Mississippi, California, Minnesota, and Oregon, but she mostly worked here in Eugene at Sacred Heart Medical Center where the hospital’s greed, dishonesty, hypocrisy, and callousness, caused it to be deemed Sacred Dollar, and resulted in Peggy becoming so anguished, outraged, and disillusioned that she retired early. Today, my feelings toward Sacred Heart led me to mouth the word bullshit every time I came across a
wall-size rendering of the hospital’s mission statement: “We carry on the healing mission of Jesus Christ by promoting personal and community health, relieving pain and suffering, and treating each person in a loving and caring way.”

Despite its Catholic ownership, I doubt that there’s a higher percentage of Catholic employees at SHMC than in the local population (the habit-clad nuns left before Peggy’s arrival in ’86). The most common modern reminder of SHMC’s ownership is a bronze cross in every room (Peggy caught a man energetically ripping one from his wife’s wall), and there used to be a large outdoor statue of the Virgin Mary
from which the mother of one of Peggy’s L&D patients hung herselfbut I couldn’t find it today.

During our fifty-years together, Peggy has twice been hospitalized overnight, and I was in four times—for food poisoning, a knee replacement, and two shoulder surgeries. Prior to marriage, I was hospitalized three times. Is seven a lot? Perhaps, but with rising costs, laparoscopic advancements, and the growing threat of untreatable infections, people used to be hospitalized far more often. For example, in the old days, triple hernia repair would have necessitated cutting the patient open, so no one would be sent home the same day. This represents a change for the better, at least for those who have help at home. Without Peggy, I don’t know how I could manage right now. I take immense comfort in knowing that, no matter what is going on in her
life or mine, we will be there if the other needs us. 

During our long marriage, I’ve gone from believing that sex was the primary expression of emotional intimacy to realizing that a great many things outrank sex. For instance, adding someone’s name to your savings account; helping him or her bathe after surgery; holding hands while browsing old photos; sharing the anniversary of that first sacred night as “husband and wife”* ; or, if it should come to that, wiping a butt that you once considered too angelic to need wiping.

Peggy often came home from her first hospital
job—at the 105-bed King’s Daughters Hospital in rural Mississippiwith funny stories. For instance, one night at KDH, Peggy was working on second when the first floor nurse phoned to say that someone had fallen past room 108. Sure enough, Peggy looked out the window of 208 to find her patient lying on the ground. She called for an ambulance—the ambulance shed was just around the corner—and in no time at all, the ambulance came flying. Unfortunately, there was a heavy dew, so when the driver slammed on brakes, the huge vehicle kept right on going, barely missing the patient.

The patient later explained that he had wanted to go home without the usual formality—i.e. paying his bill
—so he did what you or I would have done, which was to pack-up his few clothes, urinal, bedpan, and water pitcher. After dropping his suitcase out the window, he mustered-up his optimism and took a flying leap in the direction of a limb on a loblolly pine. To his dismay, three unfortunate events then occurred: (1) the limb broke; (2) he hit the ground; (3) the limb hit him.

On another night at KDH, Peggy was working in the emergency room when an ambulance arrived with two shooting victims. The ER doctor decided to transfer them an hour’s drive north to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, so they were duly loaded—or rather re-loaded—into the ambulance, and Peggy was told to go with them. 

One man was unconscious, and although a bullet in his jaw made it impossible for the other to talk, he proved to be a voluble grunter, fist-shaker, and pantomimer, who was soon able to make Peggy understand that he and the other man had shot one another. She then became inordinately curious as to whether the doctor who had ordered her into the ambulance (where there was no place for her to sit except between the two men) had been privy to this information, but he later proved reticent on the topic.

Why did Peggy never come home with funny stories from SHMC? Maybe the fact that she worked in intensive care—that is until her back gave out from turning unconscious patients—followed by labor and delivery had something to do with it, as did the unhappy work environment, but I
’ve also wondered if small town informality might simply be a better vehicle for humor than city impersonality. Another relevant factor might be the grim, merciless, and spontaneity destroying political correctness that characterizes liberal institutions.

I only attended one “celebratory” get-together for the nurses who worked on Peggy
’s unit, and although I was well aware of what Peggy told me about her work situation, it was the first time that I got to see for myself how angry and miserable her fellow nurses were. As they wolfed their food, I reflected that I had seen more cheerful people at wakes, and that the absence of liquor appeared to be the only thing between them and a hair-yanking, eye-gouging brawl. 

Despite my contempt for Sacred Heart, I like knowing that the largest medical center between Portland and San Francisco (a distance of 650-miles) is just across town, and that there are thousands of people who have to drive for hours over icy mountain roads (all four grandparents of a newborn baby on Peggys unit died when their car slid from such a road) to reach a place that I can get to in fifteen minutes. If the surveys are right, SHMC’s patients feel as badly treated as its employees, yet SHMC still offers a variety of medical specialties, diagnostic tools, and advanced treatments, and the older I get, the more such things matter. Besides, the day might come when the Dollar trades its corporate indifference for a commitment to treat its patients and staff in a “...loving and caring way.” 

 

* Or, in the U.S. anyway, wife and wife or husband and husband,” at least until the Trumpian Supreme Court again allows conservative religious values to dominate marriage.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

It only has to be added to the hospital's mission statement, Accept the work as that of Jesus Christ, as long as you can pay.

At our St Francis Xavier Cabrini Hospital, clearly Catholic, I remember the nuns who neglected my grandmother in her dying days. It is a good hospital now mostly with Jewish doctors and specialists. There are still those spooky crosses in each room though. They give me the creeps.

I agree with your opinion of love in older years.

Doctors and nurses will always have good stories, at times of their use of black humour.

People are foolish to opt for a tree change, that is moving to the countryside when they are older. Move away from good medical care and become totally dependent on your ability to drive?

Emma Springfield said...

So is Peggy okay?

Snowbrush said...

"I remember the nuns who neglected my grandmother in her dying days. It is a good hospital now mostly with Jewish doctors and specialists. There are still those spooky crosses in each room though."

Cabrini's sounds like Sacred Heart where crosses and mentions of Jesus still exist, but where they seem more like a part of the decorating scheme than fervent expressions of faith.

In responding to your comment, I looked to see if SHMC offers abortions. Well, no, not elective abortions anyway, but they do offer medically necessary abortions, and they also offer elective sterilization procedures: https://www.peacehealth.org/peace-island/community-health-and-wellness/news-items/frequently-asked-questions/Pages/Reproductive-Health. Next, thanks to your comment, I looked up their board of directors to see if it contained priests or nuns. It doesn't: https://www.peacehealth.org/foundation/sacred-heart/Pages/about-us. So why not discard the thousand bronze crosses and the religion-based mission statement? The reason is that the hospital is run by a mammoth outfit called PeaceHealth, and PeaceHealth is Catholic owned. Perhaps, the presence of crosses--and even the name--suggests that Cabrinis also continues to be Catholic-owned.... Thanks to Trump's Supreme Court, religious institutions are now exempt from the human rights protections that exist in other settings. For instance, firing people for being gay is now a "protected religious liberty," although doing it in Eugene could lead to violent demonstrations. So it is that, to some extent, religion has lost its power to oppress, at least in secular cities like Eugene.

"People are foolish to opt for a tree change, that is moving to the countryside when they are older."

I lived half of my life in the country before deciding that I would never, ever live in the country again simply because my values appear to be anathema to most country dwellers. Also, as you say, when one is getting old, moving to the country--or even to a small town--is a bad idea due to lessening mobility. I would guess that those who do it are such inveterate optimists that they simply can't imagine that mobility will ever be a challenge for the likes of themselves. Peggy has friends who not only moved to the country; they moved next door to a national forest, which means that the woman of the pair (the man never worries about anything) spends summers worrying that their huge home will burn to the ground--last summer, the fires came close. Whatever my problems, I can truthfully say that I've never given Peggy reason to worry about me being overly optimistic, and research has shown that it's really true that pessimists have a firmer grasp on reality. Optimists, on the other hand, are like squirrels who see no need to store up nuts for the winter.

Hannah Jane said...

I hope Peggy is all right.

Peggy has some wild stories, especially the one about the ambulance ride. I can't think of many more intense and awkward places to be.

Your piece about emotional intimacy is touching and so true.

Snowbrush said...

Thanks, Emma and Hannah Jane, for asking about Peggy--it means a lot to me, as I'm sure it will for her.

Last November, she started having abdominal cramps and unexpectedly dropped ten pounds (she exercises daily and had been struggling for years to lose five pounds). Her first thought was CANCER!, so although it usually takes a lot to get her into a doctor's office (I usually have to make her appts for her in order to get her to go at all), she made an appointment with her trusted internist (Kirk) who ordered various tests. Nothing turned up, and Kirk said he had no other ideas, although he completely dismissed the possibility of cancer, so she went home to wait for the problem to go away. Fortunately, her weight loss stopped shortly thereafter, but she didn't regain the weight she had lost. Unfortunately, the cramps continued, and were often severe, especially after her first meal of the day, so, in April, she went back to Kirk. He ordered a scope exam from both ends, but due to Covid, it took all this time to get it scheduled. All that the exam turned up was GERD--with a severity level of three out of ten. She's still awaiting lab results, but the proctologist told her that he expected everything to come back normal. He also said that GERD could account for her pain. This is good news compared to the horrid things that might have turned-up, but Peggy is still a bit worried.

rhymeswithplague said...

In regard to what you said at the end of your first comment, I have maintained for many years that it’s better to be a pessimist than an optimist because optimists are frequently disappointed but pessimists are occasionally pleasantly surprised. It makes sense to me even if it doesn’t to anyone else.

I do hope Peggy gets a good report from the lab.

Strayer said...

Oh my, I hope Peggy is ok. Some of the stories are funny. My sister in law just retired from her floor nurse job. For a long time they had a very bad supervisor but she finally got cancer and died and I don't think anyone was sad about it. Then I think she got a good supervisor who was not angry and mean and judgemental and control freaky. I like the story about the man jumping to a tree limb....that one made me laugh.

The Blog Fodder said...

Dollar driven health care boggles my mind. You have had your share of hospitalizations. I can empathize with you on that.
Your description of intimacy in older couples is right one

Snowbrush said...

"I have maintained for many years that it’s better to be a pessimist than an optimist because optimists are frequently disappointed but pessimists are occasionally pleasantly surprised."

Or as Tamar Myers put it: "We pessimists have everything to gain, whereas optimists have a fifty-fifty chance of being disappointed." My older sister tells me, "You see the glass as half-empty while I see it as half full, and my way is better." Yet it's not pessimists who fail to save for retirement, go into the desert with too little water, or don't bother to buy homeowners insurance. Perhaps pessimists are less happy, but can we really choose to be one way or the other, and which comes first anyway, the worldview of optimism/pessimism or the emotional state of happiness/unhappiness?

"Oh my, I hope Peggy is ok."

I addressed that a couple of comments up, but rather than have you come back for it or paste it here, I'll email it to you.

"For a long time they had a very bad supervisor but she finally got cancer and died and I don't think anyone was sad about it."

I don't think I'll be much missed when I die, but, off the top of my head, I can only think of one person who will be glad I'm gone.

"I like the story about the man jumping to a tree limb....that one made me laugh."

I suppose he didn't realize that he was free to walk right out the front door, but the real laugh clincher was that, although he was fit enough to jump out a window, he considered it a good idea to take his urinal and bedpan--maybe he thought they would make good Christmas gifts (P.S. I saved Peggy's large laxative box from her colonoscopy to wrap a Christmas gift in).

Far Side of Fifty said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog. Robotic Surgery...isn't that something! I have heard that it is mostly error free. Hope so in your case. My Niece works at the hospital in Salem the ER...she has so stories too!
Yes were are far away from good Doctors...at least we are still able to Drive!!

ellen abbott said...

a couple of year ago I developed afib and flutter, both heart rhythm problems. flutter - rapid heart beat; afib - irregular heartbeat. they did the ablation in my right atria for flutter and so that's no longer a problem. the electrophysiologist wanted to put me on medication for the afib and because of my age the med he was starting me on needed observation for a few days. so instead of being sent home the same day as would ordinarily have been the case, I was admitted to the heart hospital for 3 days. every body on that floor was very ill except me and I would get up and go to the bathroom or walk the floor without asking for or waiting for a nurse to accompany me much to their annoyance. the sign on my door said 'fall risk'. why I asked about that she told me everyone on the floor was a fall risk. actually, I was the only mobile patient on the floor. but I would joke around with the nurses, especially the night nurses and always thanked them every time for everything they did.

not counting the two times I gave birth I've been in the hospital 2 times growing up (tonsils, UTI) and once from a car accident (concussion) and then for the ablation which is normally as outpatient procedure.

we moved out of the city to a small town about 10 years ago. it had a terrible hospital which when I was snake bit they had to research the protocol on the internet. and then it closed and since has been bought by a different hospital system but I haven't heard if the quality of care improved. The hospital where I had my ablation was about 45 minutes away in the city.

angela said...

I do not like hospitals but they do have their uses
I can’t believe there is only one major hospital in an area so large I’m sure you could do with a few more

As we get older you do appreciate the small, and not so small, acts of love as you explained
We are getting to that age of lots of doctors appointments and it’s nice to have a partner who can drive and can look after you, after any procedures

Sue in Italia/In the Land Of Cancer said...

I had robot surgery to remove some unnecessary potentially cancerous organs. It went fine. All 4 of the surgeries I've had never resulted in me being admitted though I was admitted to have my three babies.
Peggy's stories are hilarious.

Nurses are being overworked and now there is a shortage. Perhaps time for a culture change if they want to keep them.

We do live sort of in the county but we are 4 miles from where our health services are and have a single story house. Both of us are in good health but I know that could change in a second. Eventually we will probably have to head back to town. Perhaps we will have self driving cars in time for us to need them?

Snowbrush said...

"Dollar driven health care boggles my mind."

It means that where the need is the greatest, people have no choice but to pay whatever they are charged. For non-medical services, a person can shop around and get estimates, but it can be impossible to get estimates for medical services, although the cost often differs by several hundred per cent. Given how much Americans pay for medical care, we are the worst served population in the world. How can the medical industry get away with it? By owning Congress, it being the case here that a person needs millions of dollars to win a seat in Congress, and, to get that kind of money, candidates must sell his or her soul to the wealthy.

"Robotic Surgery...isn't that something! I have heard that it is mostly error free."
It means that people get sliced open a whole lot less, and therefore heal faster and stand less chance of infection, but I never hear that a given product is incapable of failure without envisioning the Titanic. It would be nice to be wrong in this instance, and maybe after the passage of years, I will be happily forced to admit that I am.

"they did the ablation in my right atria for flutter and so that's no longer a problem."

Peggy's best friend (Shirley, age 75) who looks healthy and takes good care of herself had an ablation two months ago. She wasn't doing well, so another ablation was planned when, three weeks ago, she had a heart attack of unknown origin. She's now at home, but looks pale and has no energy. Because Shirley doesn't research anything or ask any questions of any doctors, it can be like pulling teeth to get information from her, so Peggy has no idea what treatment will come next or even what risks Shirley is facing, and she very much doubts that Shirley knows. Peggy has even offered to go to doctors' appts with her, but Shirley won't allow her or anyone else to do that. If she were my friend, this inability to get information about life and death matters would drive me CRAZY, but then some might argue that I wouldn't have far to travel.

"it had a terrible hospital which when I was snake bit they had to research the protocol on the internet."

NOW you've got me curious! You live in Southeast Texas, so was the snake a ground rattler, Eastern Diamondback, cottonmouth, copperhead, coral snake? ...Is it not a small wonder that anyone even wanted to buy that hospital? When I hear that a small hospital is struggling, I later hear that it has closed.

"I can’t believe there is only one major hospital in an area so large I’m sure you could do with a few more."

The problem is that there simply isn't sufficient population density to support them. Oregon's land area consists of 100,000 square miles, yet three-fourths of its 4-million residents live in the 300-square mile Willamette Valley due to the fact that the rest of the state consists of deserts and mountain ranges. The Catholic charity that owns SHMC owns nine other hospitals (in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon), their size ranging from 10 beds to 450 beds, so even if one is so lucky to live near a small hospital, s/he will have to go someplace else to find specialists, advanced testing, and complicated surgeries.

Winifred said...

Good grief Snow those stories are horrific, I've never heard anything like them. No wonder you fear going into hospital.

I hope that Peggy feels better soon and doesn't need any more treatment. I'm like her I don't go to the doctor's when I really should.

My husband has had numerous visits and operations in a few hospitals here in the UK and we can only be thankful the operations were successful and the staff and treatments were amazing.

The world has changed a lot since our NHS was set up in 1948 but there are still rich & poor people so the need for it hasn't changed.

Aneurin Bevan was Minister of Health here after WW2 in a government that cared about people and was the founder of the NHS in 1948. His quotes are still as relevant as then.

“No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of a lack of means.”

“The essence of a satisfactory health service is that the rich and the poor are treated alike, that poverty is not a disability, and wealth is not advantaged.”

Sadly our current government seems hell bent on privatising it and usually by the back door!

However as Aneurin Bevan said
"Our NHS will last as long as long as there are folk with the faith to fight for it".
If nothing else has been learned from the pandemic it's the fact that the NHS employs superheros who have given so much to fight the virus. I am sure there are millions here who have the faith to fight for it despite what the government does.

Sorry this seems a bit political but your stories are proof that privatisation is a not a path we want to tread.

Take care

ellen abbott said...

copperhead. on my foot. adult so it was a warning strike instead of a kill my food strike. even so my leg swelled up from my toes to my hip and it was about 6 weeks before I could get my shoe on comfortably. copperheads are the least venomous of all the venomous snakes and only the very young or the very old die. they observed me in the ER for four hours, gave me pain meds and a tetanus shot and sent me home. it was very painful for about two weeks. but yeah, the doc on call had to look up the snake bite protocol on the internet. in a country hospital where you'd think they would already know what to do.

Snowbrush said...

"I'm like her I don't go to the doctor's when I really should."

Although I, by nature, present myself in a masculine manner and Peggy a feminine one, we sometimes fall into various common gender reversals, our willingness/unwillingness to go to a doctor being one of them.

"..the operations were successful and the staff and treatments were amazing."

I feel both joy and envy upon hearing this. I sometimes remind myself that, by definition, 50% of workers in any given job are below average. Reminding myself of this enables me to better accept substandard treatment unless it's so substandard that something really must be said.

"Sorry this seems a bit political..."

I welcome such comments. Although some few--some very few, the majority having long ago left in anger--readers might oppose the views you've endorsed, you've attacked no one, and you've said nothing that could anger anyone with the exception of those who can't bear to hear any opinion that doesn't mirror their own.

"...your stories are proof that privatisation is a not a path we want to tread."

Sadly, America's Republican Party continues to embody the spirit of Ronald Reagan. For instance:

"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem, and "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help."

If Reagan is the father of America's Republicans, then Ayn Rand is surely their mother, having written numerous books to promote the same two ideas: (1) socialism is the problem, and (2) laissez-faire capitalism is the solution (she even argued that, by the time our sun burns out, capitalists will have invented a superior source of heat and light). Your own Margaret Thatcher--with whom, I'm sure you'll recall, Reagan got along famously--had the following to say about socialism: "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money." As with Rand and Reagan, Thatcher's phrase "other people's money"--suggested that she viewed socialists as the human version of leeches whose only goal in life was societal domination and material riches, which they stole from their betters, i.e. the world's creative, industrious, freedom-loving capitalists.

"copperhead. on my foot. adult so it was a warning strike instead of a kill my food strike."

While clearing land one day, I ate my lunch on a lawn chair while sitting in the shade and watching a copperhead sniff the air near my feet. He never once gave me reason to think he might bite, and it was a lovely, absorbing, and memorable time. One day, Peggy came home from the hospital saying that a woman had stepped on a copperhead that she hadn't seen due to the fact that she had been carrying a full laundry basket. When the copperhead bit, she dropped the basket on top of the snake, the snake bit her a second time. Did your encounter with a copperhead lead to changes in your thoughts or behaviors?

On the subject of poisonous critters, I see far fewer yellow and black wasps here than in the South, and I see no large red wasps. Oregon's wasps never threaten me, and I've become so comfortable around the many nests in my low-roofed storage shed that when I enter it, I often forget that my head comes within inches of the nests, some of which contain twenty or more wasps. When the temperature here hit 113 several weeks ago, some of the wasps started flying directly at me (only changing direction at the last moment) before I got within ten feet of the shed. I so wanted to help them that I finally found the courage to slowly open the shed door to let some of the heat out--plus I made sure that they had water--but I stopped going into the shed until after dark.

PhilipH said...

Jolly good article with intelligent comments.

Re Maggie Thatcher: she was the Torie's goddess and the working man's Lucifer. Her attempt to foist the Poll Tax on every adult was quickly dismantled. She manipulated the voting boundaries which put her in the same category as NiccolΓ³ Machiavelli with a handbag. She bribed council house tenants by giving them power to buy their house with high discounts, tne majority were sold for massive profits to developers and other private buyers after a relatively short time. This has made affordable housing ten times worse imo.

A standing joke was that Maggie T was to be buried 20 feet under because, deep down, she was a good person.She got on famously with Ron Reagan and no doubt she and the scumbag Trump would have idolized each other.

That's all I can muster fight now. Hope you and Peggy are as well as can be right now. Philip

kylie said...

I remember being very concerned about Peggy when you spoke of her weight loss and I'm pleased her investigations reveal nothing ominous. How are your hernias now?
The ambulance story is hilarious and horrifying, I could just see the ambulance sliding so far as to hit the patient.
I think anyone who can jump out a window is probably capable of getting to the bathroom so I wonder why he wanted the bed pan. People are universally entertaining.

The only Catholic run hospital I have ever been to is a local-ish one called calvary which specialises in hospice care and rehabilitation. When I was a child there would always be hushed voices speaking of a person's admission to Calvary and there are still those who won't go there for rehab because they think they will die there. It's actually a lovely place with huge windows and expansive views down to the bay.

I spent 10 days in hospital recently, the first 5 in a major teaching hospital and the next in a smaller, less fancy place. Guess which one gave me a shower every day and which one gave me a wash twice?

Snowbrush said...

"Jolly good article with intelligent comments."

Thank you! I love the expression "jolly good."

"She manipulated the voting boundaries..."

Do you have a specific name for the practice? Here, it's called gerrymandering, and is one of numerous unethical ways that Republicans have to win elections. Today, there are several news stories to the effect that they are setting aside massive amounts of money to be used to challenge unfavorable results in future elections. Nothing is so dangerous to American democracy than the Republican Party.

"How are your hernias now? "

I went to the surgeon for a check-up yesterday, and she said that I had had a fourth hernia, this one behind my belly-button. She (Winnie) hadn't mentioned it sooner because it was so little that she just sewed it up instead of putting screening over it. As for my other three hernias, she was able to cover them with a single piece of screening that measured approximately four inches by six inches. She said that two of them are associated with lifting heavy weights (I've done a lot of that), and that the third is a common hernia among men because it follows the path that male genitals take when they descend during fetal development. Winnie is a Christian who, as a part of her religious practice, travels to Guatemala a time or two a year to perform hernia surgeries there. Unfortunately, they require that she cut the patient open due to a lack of advanced equipment.

"I think anyone who can jump out a window is probably capable of getting to the bathroom so I wonder why he wanted the bed pan."

I can but throw out a few possibilities: greed; to keep as a souvenir; to use as a gift; to keep for his old age; he was phobic of bathrooms.

"I spent 10 days in hospital recently, the first 5 in a major teaching hospital and the next in a smaller, less fancy place. Guess which one gave me a shower every day and which one gave me a wash twice?

I certainly hope that you'll say a lot more about your hospitalizations! If the teaching hospital teaches nurses and aides, I assume that helping patients bathe would be a part of that.

Snowbrush said...

P.S. Regarding Peggy. Peggy's lab work came back positive for a pre-cancerous condition called Barrett's Esophagus, which can be caused by smoking, alcohol, obesity, or, as in Peggy's case, acid reflux.

Tasker Dunham said...

All I can say from a U.K. perspective is thank goodness we have out national health service. It's not perfect, and there are many who denigrate it and would like to see it sold off to shareholding profiteers, but I have been very thankful for it on the occasions I've had to use it.

Live and Learn said...

My mother was a registered nurse and worked in many different environments over the years. However, she quit the hospital where she worked after the paperwork became more important than patient care. She didn't tell many stories because we lived in a small town and even if you didn't name names, any information at all, might have tipped us off to whom she was talking about.

Ruby End said...

A colonoscopy and an endoscopy on the same day?! Wow, gets it all out of the way though. You couldn't have them both done here, they just don't run the clinics that way. GERD, ah, you called it something else in the email but I know what GERD is as I was diagnosed with a form of it myself last year - in my case Silent Acid Reflux - hence my loss of voice for so long. I'll bet we're on the same meds for it, they said nothing else can be done for me with it either, which is quite par for the course with most of the ailments I have. As I said I'm glad it isn't something far more serious.

Peggy's stories are very funny, it's s shame the Sacred Heart was so grim a place to work afterwards. Hubby has a whole host of stories, some funny, some so dark and bleak they don't get aired more than once, but aired they sometimes need be because it eases the hellishness to share.
X

Snowbrush said...

"thank goodness we have out national health service"

At age 65--or younger in the case of debilitating health problems--people go on a government insurance called Medicare. Most people supplement the government program with private insurance, but it's still far better than wholly private insurance. The strength of American healthcare is that, although our mortality rate keeps going up, it's pretty good if you can afford it, and you can have most tests and procedures done quickly. Aside from the cost, a serious downside is that those who can afford it are given far more tests and operated on far more often than people in comparable countries simply because there's so much money to be made.

"However, she quit the hospital where she worked after the paperwork became more important than patient care."

Peggy felt similarly, but in her case, the problem wasn't actual paperwork but rather electronic charting. Patient information had to be recorded in various software locations, and computers and medication access was done with handprints, a system that regularly failed because the computer did a poor job of reading the hands of people who wash their hands every few minutes all day long. Software was constantly being updated, with every update leading to further glitches and therefore further exasperation on the part of nurses. Added to this was the sheer quantity of things that had to be charted, much of it for the purpose of preparing documentation in case of a lawsuit (lawsuits are common in labor and delivery because anytime a baby isn't perfect, parents start looking for someone to blame).

"A colonoscopy and an endoscopy on the same day?! You couldn't have them both done here, they just don't run the clinics that way."

That's American efficiency for you! The doctor sticks the probe up the patient's butt, and when s/he is done down there, removes the probe, wipes it off with a Kleenex, and sticks it down the patient's throat. That way, the patient only makes one trip to the hospital, and, because the two procedures are done back-to-back, only has to be put to sleep once.... Okay, I was kidding about the kleenex, but given that the same procedures can be done by the same doctor in the same room during the same window of time, I wonder why they aren't done on the same day in Britain, as it would surely make for a more efficient and patient-friendly system.

"GERD, ah, you called it something else in the email..."

I had already told you that she had GERD, so I only mentioned her new diagnosis of a GERD-caused precancerous condition called Barrett's Esophagus. There is really nothing to be done about it other than to repeat the endoscopy yearly so that the resulting cancer can be identified early and immediately treated.

Marion said...

I’m glad Peggy’s okay. How are you holding up? I recently acquired GERD, too. I’m on a modified keto diet and the pain is gone, plus I lost 20 pounds which I needed to lose. I gave up sugar, carbonated drinks, coffee (UGH!), carbohydrates, tomato sauce, citrus, spicy food, and dairy. The sugar withdrawal was the worst. I mainly eat chicken, fish & some beef along with salads and all green vegetables that I grow myself. It’s been 6 weeks and I’m feeling much better and don’t feel hungry at all. It was drastic for me, a southerner, used to cornbread, rice, pasta, and apple pie, etc.

I’ve had 12 surgeries. Long stories that. I recently had an abnormal mammogram because of severe pain in my breasts, but no lumps, just shadows...whatever that means. I’m have a surgical breast biopsy Thursday which I am not looking forward to. Take care, Marion 🌻 xo

Snowbrush said...

I’m glad Peggy’s okay. I recently acquired GERD, too.
You acquired it--what were you thinking to do such a thing?! Go back, Marion--give it up, let it go. Peggy has known that she has GERD for many years, but Barrett's is a recent, upscale diagnosis, which is the precancerous result of longterm GERD. Barrett's can be--as in her case--painful and it make it difficult to swallow difficult (she seriously chokes on her food every day or so).. The doctor who ran her tests recommended that she take Pepcid, and so she is.
How are you holding up?
I'm mostly back to normal, so am now lifting 30-50 pounds


"I’m on a modified keto diet. It was drastic for me, a southerner, used to cornbread, rice, pasta, and apple pie, etc."

I became a vegetarian in '83, but since I never cared for beef anyway, the only things that I greatly mssed were bacon and porkchops, particularly porkchops (I found it easy enough to give up chicken). Peggy has a North Carolina vegetarian niece who married a Presbyterian preacher. Because congregants regularly give the two of them gifts of food and invite them over for dinner, it must be challenging to say no to all that grease, but she has stuck to her diet for at least 20-years.

I very much enjoy cornbread, but use canola oil instead of shortening (or, god forbid, lard), and polenta instead of finely ground cornmeal. In making cornbread, I replace nearly half of the cornmeal with barley, whole wheat, or a combination of the two--it being as easy to find whole grain flours here as it was impossible in the rural South. I also use polenta to make grits, so--except for the lard--the result is much closer to what long ago Southerners used than is the over-processed stuff in use today. Because I could only find sorghum--to put on my cornbread--in eight-ounce bottles at exorbitant prices, I long ago switched to molasses. We haven't made an apple pie since our ancient apple tree finally died, and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that we greatly favor pear pie anyway, and it's also true that we have a lovely and productive Bartlett Pear tree.

I’ve had 12 surgeries.

You got me wondering exactly how many I've had, so I opened my handy list--that I created when I got tired of sitting in doctors' offices and writing all that stuff out YET AGAIN--and counted 22. Of course, the question arises as to how bad does a procedure have to be before it counts. Are gum grafts surgeries (my new osteopath thinks so)? How about cataracts and other things that used to be a big deal, but aren't such a big deal anymore)? How about a neuroma excision from one's thigh? Eight mucoceles from a lower lip? I include everything on my list because it's easier to do that than having to ask myself again and again, "Is this, or isn't this a surgery?"

Long stories that. I recently had an abnormal mammogram because of severe pain in my breasts, but no lumps, just shadows...whatever that means."

Shadows are ghosts and other weird stuff, Marion, and you don't want to have anything to do with them lest you end up like the discouraged elderly knight in the Poe poem: "Shadow, said he, where can it be, this land of El Dorado?" (The answer, of course, is Arkansas.)

Marion said...

Hey, Snow, how’s the weather in Oregon? Waiting for my zillionth hurricane to hit or so it seems. We’re on the left side, so unless it turns, we shouldn’t get too much rain/wind. I’m worried about my oldest grandson who’s now living in Clarksdale, Mississippi as the storm is to head his way... We’ll see. He got his degree in Forestry last year and found an environmental type job in Clarksdale, the crossroads of the Blues.

I had my breast biopsy this week. What a painful experience! I won’t have results for TWO or more weeks. So, I wait some more.

Loved your Poe reference. Oh, I’ve had 4 gum surgeries, so I’m up to 17 surgeries now. πŸ˜πŸ˜‚πŸ€£πŸ˜‚ But you win! Talk to you after the storm, unless.......⛈πŸ’¨πŸ’¨πŸ’¨ xo, 🧚🏽‍♀️

Snowbrush said...

"how’s the weather in Oregon?"

Today's high will be 88 (which is hotter than average) with unhealthy air quality from forest fires: https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/fc31b849656c65d136b19ebc73d5ce774d9983e411618b23abd77e14ef85530b

"Waiting for my zillionth hurricane..."

I would often visit your blog, you know, if you would (1) publish my comments, and (2) give a coherent account of whom you are, but I will still visit it today to see how you're doing weather-wise.

"I’m worried about my oldest grandson who’s now living in Clarksdale, Mississippi as the storm is to head his way..."

What are you worried about, exactly? Unless the hurricane spawns one or more tornadoes (which are practically an everyday risk of living in the Deep South anyway), all he will get is rain and gusty wind.

"Oh, I’ve had 4 gum surgeries, so I’m up to 17 surgeries now."

I appreciate your concession that I have more to whine about than you do.

rhymeswithplague said...

It’s October already and you seem to have withdrawn from Blogland. Say it isn’t so. I hope your health and Peggy’s are improving or at least not getting any worse.

I think I have been hospitalized four times in my life —a tonsillectomy at 4 and then nothing until a heart attack at 55 (anterior myocardial infarction), then severe gastrointestinal bleeding in 2014 that required two units of blood, then the insertion of five stents in my coronary arteries in 2017.

I discovered this week that Putz in Utah died a year ago and thought you might want to know. I put a link to his obituary in my latest post. His photo looks normal enough. I think his wife Karma Lee made him give up blogging or at least want to.

I am still driving but don’t know how long the macular degeneration will let me continue. Ellie gave up driving about 5 years ago. Living outside of urban sprawl is not all it’s cracked up to be, although we now have a major hospital about 15 minutes away as the sprawl continues to encroach.

I miss reading fresh stuff from you, which is not to say I agree with it necessarily.

Snowbrush said...

"I miss reading fresh stuff from you, which is not to say I agree with it necessarily."

As to the first part of your sentence, I have obviously died and gone to the atheist heaven, there being no other explanation for your most welcome and unexpected sentiment. As to the second part, do you seriously mean to imply that you, a political and religious conservative, don't "necessarily" agree with my every left-wing atheist "raving" (as I think you called them)!? I'm as flummoxed and confused as a goose that has been struck on the head, and can but entertain the desperate hope that not "necessarily" agreeing doesn't preclude the possibility of unnecessary agreement.

Thank you very much indeed for catching me up on the news about our former friend and about your hospitalizations. I have been writing posts during my absence, but simply haven't put them online. I'm now working on one about how and why Peggy and I moved 2,500 miles from rural Mississippi to one of the most liberal cities in America, and I will definitely put that one online, probably within a day or two.