(There was a better view out the window of Suite 3 in the VHC Cardio Unit. The morning in Post-Op recovery revealed the aerial traces of more than a couple dozen contrails produced by hurtling jets in the blue heavens above. That lasted a half hour or so, to be replaced with the montage that begins this episode of The Daily).
Morning, Colleagues! I am the April Fool in the title. All the other participants are skilled participants who made this adventure in health care an interesting ride through time and technology!
We rose this morning, groggy and disheveled as predicted. but the rising wasat HOME after the adventure of internal health care. A word of respect to Grace, who kept the enterprise afloat in our absence. So, that is a exclamation of gratitude to a wonderful lady and partner who manages the chaos of the crew here. There were some other participants in the trip down the short rapids. We are still a little random in application of digits to keys on the laptop, so we will harness part of the adventure to tell the story.
The interlocking skills of three physicians and their support personnel are part of the puzzle that unfolded through five (or so) surgical interventions, three of which were ultimately successful. Part of the challenge to Health Adventures is shceduling and transportation. We don’t have enough skill this morning to render a depiction of our relief in the encounter with a woman named Paula, a registered nurse by professional training, but part of the great cascade of change. She no longer dons scrubs to manage her slate of senior citizen-clients who require care beyond the walls of the Hospital or the Doctor’s office. More succinctly, it is the ability to arrive at those two venues in good order and follow simple instructions.
As a health professional by certification, she attended the host of visits and referrals and documented each session with extensive notes, which we will excerpt below.
Her management of the medical system was superb. She has a marvelous assistant named Julia, who can step up to cover overlaps (and emerging gaps) in scheduling, and providing essential continuity of care. That is the key to emerging from this tumult with optimism. Paula put it this way:
“I accompanied Vic to Virginia Hospital Center for his right leg vascular surgery. We arrived before 9am at which time he checked in, then waited in the pre-op area until being brought back to the OR for surgery at a little past 1pm. Vic was in good spirits during the pre-op phase, even singing the Michigan fight song with one of the pre-op nurses who is a Michigan alum and a fellow Navy Captain. I’m certain that was a first in pre-op!”
She noted the first part of the adventure was less about health care and more about time management for delivery of services. She wrote us this impression: “The pre-op period consisted mostly of waiting for the surgeon to complete his current case on the table, and then for the OR to be prepared for Vic’s arrival as the next patient. He was attended to by competent pre-op nurses, a well-scrubbed OR nurse, anesthesiologist Dr. Patel, and the star surgeon, Dr. Rhee.
The time management was a necessary component. The original schedule had Vic on the table at nine AM, requiring arrival at VHC for surgical prep at “Zero Five thirty.” The Hospital thankfully is less than ten minutes away, but criticality of case loading made our procedure retreat to afternoon to accommodate performance of the heart surgery.
The post-op process was more waiting we will not bore you with. Suffice it to say that the discharge was a negotiated process involving truces and agreements in the various care component personnel. Peace was achieved at some length with a sucessful roll in a wheeled chair down to the lobby and extrication from the facility by private vehicle.
Reintegration to consciousness needs no detailed coverage. Sleep and dining were both subject to dislocation that added a certain surreal aspect to the process, but let us leave it at this for this morning, one suitable for fools like us. We are grateful that there are some really good and caring people out there, and that they have enabled us to return home and to health.
As a closing note, we offer our thanks (and relief!) to those behind the small dedicated battalion of professionals who did the work. That is directly to those who reached out with positive energy as the process was…in process. And whose concern gave us hope! Thanks to you all!
Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com