What's New?

So what is new in hospital care after 40 some years?  First of all the catheter is totally different--don't even feel it.  I used to hate that thing.  Secondly the elastic white stockings to prevent blood clots are gone.  There are loosely wrapped quilted white cotten pads wrapped around your legs.  They are attached to a motor and you get a mini massage on alternate legs all through the night.  I liked it.

The bed was very comfy also and it was nice not to hear each other's tvs.  Since everyone has a cell phone now, there were no phones ringing.  There are definitely more male nurses, a lot more.  They are so sweet and caring.  Very nice.  I will never forget the one that called me a skinny minny.  All in all I thought the medical care was super.  I was on the 11th floor where they monitor you carefully so there was no shortage of nurses. 

One scary thing happened when my Nurse was talking to me from the bottom end of my bed.  A patient saw her and told her his roommate had just had a seizure.  She hurried from the room but soon came back to calm me.  She said the roommate did not have a seizure but this patient was a little weird and had already gone into one female's room and to call her immediately if he wandered in...

The only problem was since I had no room assigned to me when I went to surgery we couldn't find what they had done with my clothes.  The clothes were sent to the 7th floor locker because it is the cardiac floor.  I wasn't assigned a room until 7 o'clock at night on the 11th.  Everyone claimed to be calling for them from the 11th floor but you know--not your responsibility kind of thing on the 7th floor.  We finally asked my male nurse if Linda could go down to the 7th floor and see if they were in the locker at 10:30 AM.  He appreciated it and she had them immediately. 

It takes a special kind of person to want to work with sick people.  They have to be patient and cheerful and caring.  I was very impressed.  I liked my surgeon from the moment I saw all kinds of pictures like John had of mountains he had climbed on his office wall--very healthy physically and a good sense of humor patient bedside manner.  Hats off to the medical community--doing a great job under probably very trying circumstances.