|
14532. Macnas - 4/7/2005 4:31:11 PM Be careful arky, it's a small step from "community" to "communist". 14534. thoughtful - 4/7/2005 5:53:19 PM My advice, try to get a private room, even if it costs more or if you have to pay out of pocket.
I was stuck with an older woman who couldn't sleep and did not shut up once all night long. Consequently I didn't get any sleep either. My mother had even worse nightmares with roommate. Someone was very ill but of some unknown religion and these women came in and chanted and prayed over her all night long! Can you imagine? Not good when you want to sleep and heal.
I ended up really appreciating my headset as I was able to bury my head under the pillow, turn up the volume and tune out the roomie. 14535. judithathome - 4/7/2005 5:58:26 PM Arky, I woke up thinking about your trip to the hospital and remembered you'd said you haven't had much experience with hospital-going. I want to give you a few tips....probably should go in Health but I'm here, so:
Don't bother taking much with you because you're not going to feel like primping or doing much of anything but lay there in a daze. Don't bother with soap...they will give you something to bathe with, including a little plastic Barbie tub to use. You will be paying for all this stuff and I suggest you check out your final bill to see why the cost of healthcare is so high. Take that little $49 Barbie tub home with you and anything else they leave in your room because you will be able to find a use for all these things. Keep the little plastic digital thermometer because it will last for YEARS. Take your own toothbrush and toothpaste and any lotion, deodorant, or powder you might want to use. They don't provide those things and that's good because if hospitals got into the perfume and powder business, no one could afford what they'd charge.
Take something extremely comfortable and easy to get into to wear home...or take a big robe to wear over your nightshirt...because you won't feel like getting dressed just to be rolled down to the car and ride home. Don't take a lot of stuff to read or work on; you'll do nothing but sleep and they will have a TV you can stare at til the drugs kick in. They will have Kleenex, a mirror, maybe even a comb...all this stuff comes home with you because you pay dearly for it.
They will offer you a menu to choose what you want for meals...get way more than you want because half of it will suck. Don't get the oatmeal.
Ask your doctor to order a laxative...anethesia causes you to need these things and usually, they won't release you from the hospital if you can't "produce". Get all the pain meds you need; that's one good thing about the hospital.
Be very nice to your nurse (not that you wouldn't!) because her good will is essential to your comfort. If the staff is particularly good, leave them a box of candy at the nursing station as you check out...or have Bob do it; they love seeing thoughtful husbands do things like that.
If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. The main thing is to relax and know you'll soon be feeling so much better.
14536. judithathome - 4/7/2005 5:59:49 PM Magos deleted 14533 because I made a mistake in naming Bob incorrectly so I corrected it and reposted. 14537. arkymalarky - 4/7/2005 7:43:16 PM Wow, thanks for the great tips, Judith and Thoughtful! I hadn't thought details on any of that, except the private room, which I'm going to inquire about at pre-op. 14538. arkymalarky - 4/7/2005 7:45:37 PM I printed off the tips and I'll use them with my check list. 14539. arkymalarky - 4/7/2005 8:03:21 PM Be careful arky, it's a small step from "community" to "communist".
Ha! Mac, you sound like a member of our State Board of Education. 14540. Magoseph - 4/8/2005 11:53:41 AM The bell is tolling, she said—of course it is. I can see it--what’s more--I can hear it, BE QUIET, will you? 14541. alistairconnor - 4/8/2005 12:24:50 PM Ask not for whom the bell tolls. For it tolls for Old Karol.
Cue Neil Sedaka :
Oh Karol
I am but a fool 14542. Magoseph - 4/8/2005 12:38:09 PM I'm trying not to picture Flexy with "something more convincing" in his hand.
Well, Ali, I cannot get clever word-allusions--but at least, I can provoke them and not always unwittingly either 14543. jayackroyd - 4/8/2005 3:11:48 PM Thanks, wabbit, for the skype info and support. I've just gotten off a call with a relative in Portugal, who thinks it may make a real difference to their business communications to Mozambique.
For the uninitiated, skype is a free voice over ip service. 14544. wabbit - 4/8/2005 5:07:34 PM np, Jay. I've been talking with Spunky and the family in Mumbai the last couple days and it's been working perfectly for us. 14545. jayackroyd - 4/8/2005 6:06:09 PM There have been a couple articles in the last week, one leader in the economist and a piece by Tom Friedman in the NYTimes magazine where they've suddenly (!) realized that having big hunks of fiber running under the oceans and people being able to get detailed information about products changes everything.
I'm surprised that this is news. I find it funny to remember the bubble times when people were talking about bots, while missing the central idea that the digital infrastructure plus the idea of the internet sends the marginal price of a lot of things close to zero. In some ways, it's astonishing that I can place a call to Europe for free, but the writing was on the wall. Making money off it, otoh is tricky.
14546. thoughtful - 4/8/2005 6:48:00 PM not new but clearly needs repeating considering how little attention any policy makers are paying to the drastic structural shifts taking place in the economy...at our peril. 14547. jayackroyd - 4/8/2005 6:57:58 PM I just can't feel bad about poor, talented people getting new opportunities. We are so freakin' rich that it feels like a dog in the manger thing to be threatened by other people doing better.
But I do agree that the policy makers are way behind the curve. This education thing really needs to be dealt with, even though it's hard, for one example. 14548. thoughtful - 4/8/2005 7:35:16 PM and not just education, but also infrastructure. there are concrete things (pun intended) the govt should be doing to keep us with a fighting chance to keep our productivity high and growing.
14549. jayackroyd - 4/8/2005 7:40:07 PM It's good for everyone if the US continues to keep productivity growing. But there is a tendency to react in an isolationist fashion. Free trade makes us strong imo. Getting strong is sometimes painful, but it's the price you pay. Autarky didn't work out well for the Russians, although in the short run it looked successful. And there's something I find really wrong about agricultural subsidies and tariffs when there are people desperate for a higher level of income being shut out. 14550. thoughtful - 4/8/2005 7:58:48 PM i never suggested we undo free trade 14551. jayackroyd - 4/8/2005 9:02:05 PM Didn't say you did. Folks worried about outsourcing, though, often do tread that line. 14552. thoughtful - 4/8/2005 9:04:17 PM well the outsourcing thing has really died down since the economy started adding jobs. it was really a cyclical thing. the job loss was never large enough to matter in reality, though certainly it made political hay. Just another reason why the dems were losing it to bush. Instead of sounding protectionist, they should have boosted the education and job training and social safety net aspects of surviving changes due to expanded trade
|
