At 07:29 PM 12/16/97 EST, you wrote:
>Invisible hugs, or handshakes, as appropriate, to all my invisible friends.
>
>It's good to be home, but this time I'm tireder and shakier than ever before.
>It will take a few days just to recover from the hospital stay, which, pardon
>me, I will make the subject of this note and perhaps some others.
>
>How can one not arrive home ready to do a Rip Van Winkle when one has been
>unable to get more than a couple of hours of continuous sleep for five days?
>When I think of my original five-week hospital stay, I wonder how I lived
>through it. Yet the truth of the matter is that I felt better upon release
>back then than I do now. But of course now I have a few months of chemo
behind
>me, and I guess it's all building up in the blood.
>
>Even so, I think hospitals could do a lot to raise your sense of well being.
>Like treating you like a human being, and not a thing, for one. It is, of
>course, essential for administrators, doctors and nurses alike not to
identify
>with patients in general. That I understand. But doesn't it cross their
minds
>that a loudspeaker placed six inches away from a patient's head and all day
>ringing with sudden loud announcements -- i.e. that Nurse Edith should give
>her location or report to the desk for a phone call -- have nothing at all to
>do with the patient who is trying to recover from a night of constant (and
>unavoidable) interruptions of sleep? It reduces one to thinghood. Isn't that
>just a bit on the basic side? Couldn't there at least be a volume control
(the
>sound level depends upon the announcer -- supermarket level in some cases) or
>a switch so that staff members could switch on when they were in the room and
>off when they left? That is too expensive a device for a hospital with a
>basement full of equipment that could take you to Andromeda and back? These
>hospitals are places that can run up a bill of $20,000 a week. (I speak from
>experience. The insurance company still seems to be musing ... and that was
>July/August.) At my hospital, the loudspeaker announcements began at 7 a.m.
>and ended at 7 p.m., or so it seemed, and the frequency of announcements
>depended on the nurse in control of the apparatus. I noticed that some nurses
>made announcements much more frequently than others.
>
>So there is bellyache No. 1 about heap big important New York hospitals. I
>understand the situation is precisely the same at the heap big New York
>hospital smack next door.
>
>When I mentioned this to one of the doctors he told me I was right and should
>write to the CEO of the hospital. I asked him if other patients complained
>about the interruptions and he said not to his knowledge. Amazing. Have
any of
>my fellow travelers shared this experience of mine? I'd love to know, and
what
>you think about it.
>
>Have a nice hushed evening.
>
>Yours with heavy eyes
>
>-- Ron
>
Dear Ron,
These hospitals are places that can run up a bill of $20,000 a week. (I
speak from
experience.
$20,000 per week is definitely the reason why your "tireder and shakier
than ever before".
And 2 weeks at that. You should feel lucky that you have such insurances to
cover for this horrendous hospital bills.
I would like to know after all these treatments whether your are better or
worse. If you are status quo, that is good. What treatments have you gone
so far? After every treatments, do you feel any improvement?
I am getting all the above information to relay to my friends for their
evaluation.
Thank you for your help.
Best regards,
Manny
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