QR Codes, Crash Carts and Tantrums: Other Things I Learned While Dave was in the Hospital

 #169 January 11:  Q R codes became fashionable during Covid.  I finally dropped my Luddite ways and embraced them when it was the only way to see a menu.  The hospital has embraced them too and uses them to check on the patient before receiving meds, etc.  The very nice up side is, they can do this in the dark with just the brief “photo” light shining to pick up the code. It is SO much better than being disturbed with light switches on and off. 1/8

#170  January 12:  ICU is both a scary and wonderful thing.  The nurses really work as a team and if “your” nurse is unavailable, another one steps up quickly.  But when they bring in the crash cart and put electric pads over your heart, “just in case”, it can be pretty scary.

#171 January 13:  Everyone always complains that a hospital is never the place to try to rest and get any sleep.  This is very true.  But it is compounded by the rotating nurses and techs that each have their own sets of rules and personalities. Trying to figure that out is exhausting.  In ICU everyone works as a team and there are fewer people to “get to know” and on a regular floor it is exponential!  Dave has GI docs (PA, nurse practitioner, doc and “fellow” (who talks a lot but can’t make decisions on her own), surgeons (PA, resident and surgeon), nurse, tech, blood person, and vitals.  That’s 11… but nurses and techs all have shift changes and only 1 was assigned to David more than one day.  So in all we have probably seen 20 or more folks.  I can remember working with children with behavior problems, and the first thing I would do was add up how many grown- ups the child had to interface with during the day.  I would explain to the teachers and parents that each grown- up had his or her own rules and since the child didn’t have mature language skills, he or she would express himself with a tantrum.  I only wish a tantrum would help me communicate with all of these people!