Daily Archives: June 30, 2010

Family, Health

First Day Post Op

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Summer                             Waning Strawberry Moon

I went into see Kate this evening.  The first day post surgery can be brutal and it is this time.  A lot of pain.  She’s a stoic and the pain went well beyond her threshold .  It was hard to see, but I talked to the nurse and they adjusted her pain meds.   I’m going to call around 10:45, near the end of Clare’s shift, Kate’s nurse.  I want to know if things have gotten any better.

On stupid things people do:  I saw a motorcyclist riding his bike, his mobile phone pinned to his ear by his left shoulder.

Wanted to know what was going on in the head of the older red haired woman I passed.  She was behind the wheel of a bright yellow late model Volkswagen bug with plates that read:  Manilow.

Drove behind a new Cadillac with the license plate:  NINES.  Won it in a poker game?

Family, Health

Good Medical Care

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Summer                           Waning Strawberry Moon

Ah.  Some sleep.

As we age, Minnesota becomes a better and better place to live.  In spite of the rigors of the winter months, the high quality medical care creates a sense of safety and security that I’m not sure I could find in other states.   With Kate I’ve been through many hospitalizations and procedures, each one handled with professionalism, leaving me more and more confident as do the results.  I’ve only had the one instance of hospital based care, the achilles repair, and it was out patient, but that one time was as the others with Kate.

Given my perspective on this life, that is, barring some information I don’t have, this is it, having good medical care is important.  We have it here.

Family, Health

Kate’s Out of Surgery

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Summer                               Waning Strawberry Moon

Kate’s out of surgery and in recovery.  Dr. Heller said the procedure went well, “Perfect.  Just what we like!”  He’s an upbeat guy with a bald head, lots of confidence.  Better than a melancholy doc filled with self doubt.  I wouldn’t make much of a surgeon.

Fairview hospitals seem interchangeable with Abbott-Northwestern friendly, well-laid out, competent staff, procedures that make sense.  Comforting.

A new University Children’s Hospital is under construction and it has a poster in the elevator:  Bold, Inspiring.  There are images of Minnesota and the Twin Cities in the tunnels leading from the Gold Parking Ramp into the main campus with East and West buildings.  Surgery is on the third floor of the East Building.

Here’s a new wrinkle.  Just when I thought parking validation was dead, the surgery lounge validates my parking.  That’s not the new wrinkle.  The new  wrinkle is that I paid for validated parking.  $6.  Unvalidated it would have been $15.  So, validation now gets me the rate I would have paid back when validation made parking free.  Hmmm.

Anyhow, I’m gonna catch a nap since 5:00 am comes earlier in the ‘burbs.