[PRCo] Re: The Bear Returns

[richard allman]

oops, Fred-looks like you've lost as step-misspelled Welt and Khameni! 
Seriously, welcome home!!! RICH
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Schneider Fred" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>; "Allman Rich" 
<AllmanR at einstein.edu>; "Bill Murphey" <canonwfm at comcast.net>; "Barb 
Ciccone" <bciccone at vitullotravel.com>; "Collins Tom and Pat" 
<tandpc at comcast.net>; "Duke Don" <trainbook at earthlink.net>; "Middleton Bill" 
<wdmiddleton at earthlink.net>; "Hiser Tom" <pthiser at aol.com>; "Michele 
Hiester" <MHiester at state.pa.us>; "Becker Scott" <Sbecker at pa-trolley.org>; 
<PTMOPS at comcast.net>; "Bente Bruce" <bbente at bellsouth.net>; "Kochmanski 
Lynne" <lynne at dougkochmanski.com>; "Koo Karen" <kkoo912 at comcast.net>; 
"Kotulak Dick" <CRVLKOTULA at aol.com>; "Mattern Adam" <ajmattern3 at aol.com>; 
"Richards Ruth Ann" <rlrichards2 at peoplepc.com>; "Betty Savitz J." 
<bjsavitz at dejazzd.com>; "FRANZ SCHNEIDER" <FRANZ.SCHNEIDER at prodigy.net>; 
"Volkmer Bill" <bvolkmer at bellsouth.net>; "Wayne Koch" 
<396z28 at optionline.net>; "Jackson Russ" <JacksoRE at STVINC.COM>; 
"Ulrich-Riedel Hans" <huriedel at htp-tel.de>; "Ulrich Bill" 
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Jack" <Jack.May at americomm.net>; "Bottoms Glenn & Suzanne" 
<gsbotts at verizon.net>
Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2009 10:07 PM
Subject: [PRCo] The Bear Returns


> This message was written to people in my high school reunion mailing
> list.   Because I'm too lazy rewrite it for 50 different people, you
> can sort out of what you find of interest.
> The tell me that normal hospital stay for a coronary bypass operation
> these days is 5 days ... longer if you are in for a repeat operation
> because the risks are higher and longer if you are older.
>
> I was told today that being discharged on the 4th day for a man 69
> years old seldom happens.   I must have been irritating the nurses
> too much thereby forcing them to throw me out???
>
> My first operation cardiac bypass (a triple) 13 years ago was
> miserable because of a drug interaction that put on Saturn or
> Pluto.   I could look at the chart on the wall giving the month, day
> and year and not be able to answer them when they asked me what day
> it is.   I didn't know my wife when she came in to see me.   I might
> have been in the hospital for 8 or 9 days.
>
> This time I went in teary-eyed not really expecting to return.   They
> control the withdrawal from anesthesia so that you have no internal
> bleeding ... I think the object is to keep you under for 12 hours.
> By midnight they allowed me to awaken and pulled out the breathing
> tubes.   By 3 a.m. I wondering why PBS television changed their
> broadcast schedule to get rid of Deutsche Welle (German World), the
> German news service that used to play all night.   It eventually came
> on by 5 a.m. and by  6 a.m. I was watching the stimulating events in
> Iran on BBC television about Khomeini  demanding that the public
> accept the election of his candidate.   The mind was processing
> everything as it should.  By Wednesday evening they have out of bed
> and walking.   I thought they were nuts but I went along with the
> drill.   I've got a pinched sciatic nerve that causes all sorts of
> grief and all I needed was that pain coupled with the pain from the
> surgery.   But once they forced me to move, I found out the body was
> willing to react favorably.
>
> More than favorably.   On the second walk at 3 a.m. Wednesday, I
> hiked the equivalent of a city block within the ICU.   They have this
> great home made walker built in their shop out of 3" polyvinyl
> chloride pipe forming a box frame ... you sit down in it, or stand up
> and roll it.   Somebody was using his brain from something more than
> hat rack.   Needs to be patented.   It was heavier than your average
> garden variety aluminum walker but then it would meet the standards
> of your suit-happy lawyer looking to make money on malpractice or
> wrongful injury (sorry Sue).
>
> By Thursday we had figured out, in conjunction with a separate pain
> management group, how to medicate the spinal pain as well as the
> incisions and weep holes from this surgery and how to demand that
> some of the people listen to me ... "No, that's not what you are to
> be doing with my pain control ... read the instructions that Dr.
> _____ left for you at 3:15 this afternoon."     By the way, to get to
> the back side of the heart, they went in through an 11 1/4" incision
> between the rips on the left side.   Below it were two holes for 1/2
> inch diameter drain tubes.    Initially the pain was roughly
> analogous to the time I fell and broke three ribs but that has
> improved vastly.
>
> By Friday afternoon I had finally been moved from ICU to a room on 5-
> East (the heart floor) ... the wait was so long because "there were
> no rooms at the inn."   Then I went out to explore.   I told the new
> nurses that I had not had a good walk in 12 hours and it was time ...
> needed to get the kinks out of frame.  Fifty feet down the hall from
> room, my nurses aide told me to slow down ... she was having
> difficulty keeping up with my pace.   I didn't listen well.  She
> handed me my urine bag and told me to carry it.   I carried and kept
> tramping along.   A few minutes later I looked back and she was where
> in sight.   Five minutes later later, after exploring the entire east
> end of the 5th floor, the bear came storming back dragging his walker
> behind him and triumphantly waving the cane in the air and using the
> just the two God-given legs for support.   On the room doors are
> stars with rating from 1 up to 4 depending on how safe it is to leave
> the patient alone.   The highest rating ... the star with the numeral
> 4 means ... tie the bastard in bed and guard him or he's going to
> fall and cause us trouble.   They immediately changed mine to the
> lowest rating.   Because of leg pains radiating from the pinched
> sciatic nerve, I found it best to sleep in a reclining chair instead
> of a bed ... that's great too because I didn't have to argue with
> those people over putting up the safety rails on the bed.   At that
> point they gave up watching me and I was permitted to move around at
> my will.
>
> I am thoroughly convinced that medicine is out of control when the
> (1) insurance companies are telling the hospitals and doctors what
> they are allowed to charge and (2) depending on your age, experience
> and specialization, you have to add from $3 to $10 to every patient's
> office visit just to pay for the malpractice insurance.  This leave
> you, the patient, having to be your own patient advocate.   In my
> case it is damn nice to be able to ask a dear friend, would you let
> your girl friend go this doctor?   It 's also nice have another old
> friend from my college days who is practicing medicine in Philly who
> insists on giving free second opinions.   I'm a more than a little
> concerned with where medicine is going but I have no answers.   I've
> seen our system that leaves something like 90 million people without
> health care.   I've seen national health systems all of Europe and
> Canada that let you wait three extra months for surgery or pay extra
> for upper tier benefits to get it now.   Needless to say, I have no
> good answers ... just a lot of concerns.
>
> The greatest compliment was when my wife came in today, worrying
> about being about to take care of me at home.   The duty nurse told
> her that the patient has a remarkable ability to understand what his
> own body is telling him and he knows how listen to it.   We give him
> rules but he will do what he wants and I know he won't do anything to
> hurt himself.   Do not worry Mrs. Schneider.   What a remarkable person.
>
> I found the hospital food to be some of the worst I have had in my
> life time and I grew up with a mom whom I thought was the worst cook
> on the planet.   Today I was watching this fabulous food travelogue
> of Tuscany on television.   They were showing a street vendor carving
> up tripe (the cow's stomach) sandwiches in Firenzia (Florence).  At
> that moment the garbage patrol came in with my lunch ... a dried out
> chicken breast bearing some resemblance to a piece of white pressed
> wallboad.    The told me we had beef one night ... could not have
> proven it by me because it would have passed an endurance test for a
> 6-ply truck tire.   They also have a rule that everyone on 5-East
> (the heart wing) gets low sodium because salt might drive up the
> blood pressure    But guys, I have low blood pressure.   Another
> example of the one-size fits all rule is the surgeon trying to put me
> back on beta blockers which contain a blood pressure medication ...
> He never once questioned I was not on them before.  Reason, I get
> dizzy from the blood pressure going too low.  They did it again in
> the hospital.   In spite of that and my weaving back and forth before
> I took myself off of it, he told me on discharge, you probably won't
> take it but I'm giving a prescription for it anyway.   Huh?   Why do
> you think my family doctor and my own cardiologist took me off of
> Metroporolol?   Is this because 95% of the heart patients might die
> and sue the doctor for not doing it, so I'm going to protect myself
> anyway?   If you fall then you can't sue me because I can't prove I
> gave you the prescription?    Duh?
>
> I met two fabulous nurses, one male and one female, both of whom gave
> me the impression that they loved their work.   In my work as a labor
> statistician I actually began to ask people at random if they loved
> their work?   Do you love to come on Monday morning?   Well in
> general, I think about 9 out 10 in the U S labor force are there for
> the pay check and 1 out of 10 truly love what they are doing.    I
> found two in the hospital who I thought loved their work.   Those are
> pretty good odds.
>
> I also want to publicly thank a man who appeared in the hospital just
> to say hello.   This is someone I didn't even know in high school
> because he was so damned ambitious both academically and athletically
> that I never was in his league.   I didn't appreciate the value of
> learning for many years after he caught on.   I got to  gradually
> know this man as a medical practitioner and later on the class
> reunion committee.   I would have never believed that 50 years ago I
> would now be occasionally going out to lunch with John Eshleman and
> treasuring those meetings.  .   And John, thanks so much for coming
> in to my room every day to see how I was doing.   You and Patty (I
> want to thank her for coming in yesterday too) are absolutely
> wonderful friends.
>
> And now we can schedule the back surgery! and sewing up the hernia
> and then a trip back India.
>
> And back to the subject of people who love their work:
>
> 1)    If you live in Central Pennsylvania where you can pick up WITF
> channel 33 (Harrisburg) or 33.1 (Chambersburg).   I noticed while I
> was lying in the hospital bed an advertisement for a show at 8 pm on
> Wednesday June 24th called Sandwiches That You Will Like.   I
> immediately recognized the voice of the man narrating the show:
> Rick Seeback of station WQED, the Pittsburgh Public Television
> Station.   The first show that I can remember that Rick did was one
> titled Things That Are Not There Any More.    If you grew up there
> (like I partly did) or went to Carnegie Tech or Pitt (like some of
> our classmates did ... Julie Fatherely comes to mind), seeing it
> might have reminded you of Isaly's delis, the roller coasters at West
> View Park, the trolley cars, and many more icons that no longer
> exist.   It became a pattern that Maryland Public Television,
> Philadelphia, Harrisburg and other attempted to emulate but all of
> them fell short of Rick's quality.   I thought they fell flat on
> their video faces in comparison.  I once commented to Rick that I
> thought the big  difference was that someone instinctively understood
> how to allow person he was interviewing to lead him from topic right
> to another.   For example, he might have used used someone talking
> about going to West View Park on trolley as his way to transition
> your attention from one landmark (the park) to another (those
> ubiquitous red and cream trolleys).   He knew how to let the person
> he was talking to transition the viewer's attention and not let the
> interviewer do it.   Someone knew how to let Rick play the straight
> man and take advantage of the interviewee.   When I mentioned that to
> Rick and said, whoever does your editing does a fabulous job, he said
> "No one every told me they picked up on that before.   I do my own
> editing."  There was a sincerely look of surprise on his face that
> listener would actually pick up on the editing process.   He seemed
> very pleased.    He did an entire series of shows for WQED called the
> Pittsburgh History Series and then he branched out into other topics
> that could easily be syndicated and make money for the station ..
> one that I fondly remember was Pennsylvania Diners and Other Roadside
> Restaurants because many of his choices helped to make me fat.   I
> had eaten in 75% of them.     He also traveled the entire USA to make
> make some VCR tapes like his ice cream tape, a national amusement
> park tape, a hamburger video, and now a DVD on sandwiches.   I have
> not yet seen this one but I would commend it to you because I have
> never seen this man do a bad one.   He explained his work to me
> thusly, "Isn't it wonderful when someone is willing to pay you for
> doing something that you would do free of charge just because you
> love the work?"  I loved what I did so I could not even of
> disagreeing with him.  And in his case, he was offered a chance to
> move back to his home town to do what he loved to do.
>
> 2) Tavis Smiley has an interview show that airs late at 11:30 on WITF-
> TV in Harrisburg right after BBC news.   It has national interviews
> so I suspect it is a syndicated show and a couple of you might have
> seen this same one I saw in Lancaster General Hospital.   Tavis was
> interviewing another Rick.   This one I've never met personally
> though we crossed paths in the Dordogne Region of France in the same
> hotel.   One of his tours was there.   He came in late and I left
> early.   I left a note for him at the desk and he responded later.
> It's a person I also admired because he's doing something I would
> like to do.   Name is Rick Steeves.   Some of you may recall him from
> the Travels in Europe Series on  that originates from Oregon public
> television, locally on Saturday afternoons.
>
> In this Tavis Smiley interview,  Rick was promoting his new book
> Travel as a Political Act.  As I listened to the interview I said,
> Damn it, I'm listening to myself.   He was describing how his
> attitudes about the world and travel within it had changed over the
> years and I just rested there thinking, that's me.   That everything
> I've been saying to people.   He talked about how he first went to
> Europe hunting the cheaper hotels.   Yes, Rick, we did that when we
> were younger.   We went through the same phases.  In the 1990s he
> impressed me because his tours (and he suggested you go on your own
> but ran guided tours for those afraid to go on their own) offered
> classes on how to be a tourist.   He would not  take a customer
> unless they signed an affidavit that they had read and agreed his
> tour instructions or listed to video and agreed with it ...
> essentially he was staying in the instructions that he expect you not
> to be a sour puss and to get along with everyone and attempt to make
> other people in other nations accept you and that you will accept
> them.   When I crossed paths with him in the Blagnac, I was astounded
> looking at his schedule for the next day that he was giving lessons
> in (1) piloting a canoe in the Dordogne River and (2) basic French so
> that you could walk in a store, and be able to smile, say hello and
> buy something on your own.  And today he was saying, "Just because
> someone in Turkey or England or Germany or France doesn't want to
> trade their passport for yours doesn't mean they don't like you.   It
> only means they are perfectly content living were they are and maybe
> it also means that they are reasonably happy with their politicians
> and not enamored with ours.   They're happy in they life and we
> should not try to change them." Amen, Rick.    I've not spent as many
> miles in Europe as he has ... suspect he has me beat 7 or 8 to 1.   I
> have over 48 months there.   But I certainly agree with his
> notions.   If you want to read what he says, here is a link to the book.
>
> http://travelstore.ricksteves.com/catalog/index.cfm?
> fuseaction=product&theParentId=11&id=385
>
>
>