I
WENT INTO THE HOSPITAL FOR A WHAT!
(Surgical
Procedures, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute)
(Department
of Health and Human Services, Frazer Chronicle)
So
my medical malady has been pretty much chronicled by now in all the major news
outlets, like the Hone Kong Times, (Alternative
Electronic Information Network,) or AEIN,
and the Axis of Logic. I’d known
for a while that something was maybe wrong with my inner-workers, and a
final aching in my left arm ending in my left chest, and the failure of a
stress test put a date, time, and heart specialist in my short future.
My
blood sugar count was so high…..391 that it was determined that I’d need a few
days to rectify the upward arc of this really important part of my blood
make-up. Insulin was a dirty word…..at least to me was going to be used to get
my blood sugar under control…..and there wasn’t going to be any arguments, or
conversations…..it would be a drip, drip, drip.
After
years of fooling myself, (the worst
one to fool) here I was, under the gun and being thrown under the bus
in an all-out effort to lower my blood sugar into the reasonable and acceptable
levels so that I could continue to live.
You
know, usually we do things to ourselves, and pay for them years later, well, 69
is my years later and I’m going to be paying the piper right now.
It
took four days for the hospital staff at St.
Vincent, here in Green Bay to corral, and then lower my blood sugar
readings, but lower it they did. My by-pass procedure was scheduled for
Tuesday, October 8 at 6:30 A.M. I scored a jewel…..an all-star, and an all pro,
Dr. John Seccombe was all of these things and more.
He
and his able staff had my sorry carcass on the St. Vincent operating table for more than seven hours, they hacked
and wacked, cut and sawed, induced a pump to breath for me, and another to
distribute blood to the critical parts of my body. In the end…..it was a no
hitter, a perfect game, no errors and no walks…..a perfect procedure.
And
ya know what else…..they do every one of these procedures with the same proficiency
every day of the week…..more than a thousand in a year. My procedure was a Coronary Artery By-Pass Graft, (a Cabg
or “cabbage” as it’s called) and I needed not one, not two, or even three by
passes…..I needed five…..St. Vincent was
having a 5 for one introductory offer…..and I accepted.
Actually
accepting the suggestions of my medical team, (which I really didn’t know that
I had) tended to save my life, and will allow me to possibly regain some of the
things that I have enjoyed since I turned 60, like enjoying my granddaughters
and watching sunsets as well as sunrises. My medical team and their proficient
efforts to offer my heart a second chance, in effect has offered me another
chance at life’s beautiful little choices at love, my wife’s happy face, and to
rekindle some old friendships.
I
have been an active voice in the health insurance debate, and my opinion has
remained steady in the fact that everybody needs
access to health care…..and that opinion has been strengthened not only by my
experience, but by that of my sister who resides in Michigan.
During
my eleven day stay in the hospital for my by-pass procedure I became aware
immediately that everything that was administered to me, my case, food, and medical
supplies carried a bar-code as did my wrist band. It’s how hospitals bill patients,
insurance companies, or vendors.
I
am waiting for some sort of detailed bill that will tell me how much different
supplies, equipment, procedures and medications have cost me, and my insurance
company. It’ll be interesting to see how much a band-aid costs, an aspirin, or
stool softener.
Hospital
staff members really are masterful at commingling bed-side-manner and the
administrative part of the equation. Florence Nightingale is not dead; she now
carries a bar-code reader which, in today’s modern health care world is a
necessity.
Whether
it’s the Affordable Care Act, a derivative Obama Care, or some other government
insurance plan that is devised to cover each and every American…..it needs to
be a priority of not only our government, but every American as well. And for
people to talk about them (not wanting the government telling them what to buy,
how to be covered, or what to pay) is…..well, ridiculous.
Without
an all encompassing health plan, as a nation, we will remain largely in flux, not
quite as strong as we can be, and unable to operate in today’s twenty-first
century technology. In my opinion for government to debate this issue is a
waste of our time.
I
haven’t talked to my sister, Elaine who had surgery yesterday, but I can tell
you this, she’d agree with me when I talk about taking the business out of
health insurance. At one of the most venerable times in a person’s life, other
than a bar code gun, all of
the business needs to be kept to a bare minimum.
I
met some fascinating medical workers during my time in the hospital, from those
folks who cleaned the floors, to the CNA’s, the LPN’s, RN’s, department
directors, doctors, and their assistants, none get enough money…..not for what
they do, and what they mean to people’s health.
I
had the two cutest little day-time
health care givers, Shannon and Allison…..you guys know who you are, they
treated me with dignity and respect, and made my stay on the heart ward much
more then tolerable. Nurse Sarah was my P.M. and early A.M. health care
provider, and she was every bit as competent as my day-time nurses.
I
single these people out not because they where head and shoulders above any of
the other care-givers, but because these women seemed to have a bed-side personality
that was special…..at least for me. I hope that I wasn’t a demanding patient,
but because if I was, they would have switched to a different gear and done the
same great job.
RECOVERY
MODE
It’ll
take me a while to get my sea legs back,
hey ripping a guy’s chest open, unplugging the lungs and re-routing the blood
flow through a mechanical apparatus ain’t no small feat. I’ve been at this piece since Wednesday, and it’s
already Friday.
During
the course of my recovery I’ll be able to further research this animal that we
call health insurance, cause I need
to understand its issues. All I know is that I’m thankful that I and my sister
have ample health care insurance and both have loving family’s members to help
ease us back into our past lives.
HAVE
A NICE DAY!
Great piece, Paul. You're terrific.
ReplyDeleteDean