Happy I am Home

We have a new puppy, Leonidas, or Leo for short. He is a 9 wk old yellow Lab and he is gorgeous. I figured this is a really good time to do the puppy dance , while I am relatively limited in activities by my injured thumb (read cat-bit thumb). Instead of feeding, grooming and riding all my horses I can puppy-sit/train Leo! Actually he really is adorable- what is it about puppies that makes everyone just ooh and say," Awww, coochie-coochie, you are s000 cute, puppy,puppy"!!

While I miss the horse chores, he is a wonderful distraction and boredom-reliever. I saw the black & white cat that bit me in the barn this morning. I think he will /has become the ghost cat- so timid ,it was a split-second glimpse before he disappeared. It's OK as long as he kills mice- tho' aptly named Spike before, I am now calling him Phantom.

I did say I would say something about my hospital stay. though it now seems gone and done and not worth recounting. However it was such a departure from my regular life I want to share some observations. Usually I am home alone on a farm, working with animals- horses. Communication is primarily non-verbal and I get a lot of exercise. My hospital stay required I talk to a lot of people and stay still for long periods of time, both really hard for me. But I had lots of time to watch how medical staff treat patients.

The infectious disease doctor was the epitome of "doctor TV -type", warm, concerned, older guy. Great , I could relate. But from here I went to the emergency room to start IV drip antibiotics and had a chance to watch ER room from patients point of view. Now, I am a fan of Grey's Anatomy and the old ER, so you get a sense of it from the hassled TV doctor's side from these shows. What seems to be the reality is medicine is drowning in paperwork . It was endless waiting, going from one clerk type to the next and being told to keep waiting. It is a game . My doctor correctly assessed that I would get a hospital bed faster if I went thru the ER. This meant I was in ER halls with every uninsured person who had the flu, swine or otherwise, colds, cuts, bee stings, knife wounds etc etc. I saw one woman with a kid, who obviously just had a cold, park herself in a comfortable lounger chair,tell the kid to sit and then went to sleep. So, this kid is coughing, sneezing and running around , messing with everything. No wonder everyone gets sick in the ER. It has become an outpatient " free- health" clinic. I eventually was treated and sent to a room but the average wait in ER is ridiculous and if you don't have someone bugging the staff for you- forget it , you are going to be there forever. I cannot imagine the horribleness that will come from Obama's health care reform if even more people start going to ER's for simple care, or if more and more paperwork is needed, as seems the case anything with the government aegis on it.

So I got to a room, tagged, numbered, labeled, coded whatever. They put me to bed (surprisingly comfortable), started pain meds and told me I would live !! Some of these nurses were really nice. They take the time to tell you what is going on, which pain med might work better, if the surgeon is good- just talk to you like a person they were being nice to. Some, however, really are Nurse Ratchett. They should not be nurses. They obviously don't want to be there and sure as shooting, they don't want to be nice to you. They don't want any questions and if you are a "problem", well, they just don't answer your pages on the little call button . Too bad, they are in control and you are not!. Thankfully most of mine were pretty nice.

The next day, I needed an orthopedic surgeon. The one we find turns out to be great but he is my son's age!. Or looks it. I can tell he is really keen on his profession. He is eyeing my swollen, discolored thumb like a shark eyes a hurt fish. I am dead meat and he gets to cut me open and look at tendons, bones, muscles and he seems as happy as a pig in sh--. He can't wait. Literally.

After saying he is checking on someone in an operating room, he runs back in 10 minutes later with his portable dissecting kit ( or whatever). Now this, unfortunately , is right at shift change time. One set of nurses is leaving and one is coming. The longer you stay in hospital the quicker you realize , don't try to get anything or ask for anything at this time- it ain't gonna happen. So,the nurses are not paying attention and this Young! man proceeds to slice open my thumb to the bone. He numbed it with King Kong's needle but after 20minutes of pulling, poking, prodding, cleaning and debriding he flushes it and and smiles triumphantly. At which point I

reminded him I had been given NO PAIN MEDS!!!. He looked a little worried and then real worried as I proceeded to scream -MORPHINE NOW!!!! My poor husband held my hand while I tried to keep breathing thru excruciating pain until one nice nurse ran to get morphine. She was just shaking her head at this ridiculous oversight on his part. He actually said to me at one point, " You've had kids, just do the breathing" - I hurt too bad to smack him, which I would have if I could have.

The sun is now shining. I get to go feed with my husband . I will finish this tomorrow. It is so nice to be home.