[PRCo] Re: The Bear Returns
Schneider Fred
fwschneider at comcast.net
Sun Jun 21 20:07:17 EDT 2009
Its either this keyboard that needs replacement or the fingers are
not finding the right keys. I've had a whole lot of trouble since I
came home. Maybe a combination of both because I could just feel my
left finger reach for a "b" and I watched it come out "p" on the
monitor. Any one who knows touch typing understands that the first
finger of the left hand hits the b and the third finger of the right
hand selects the p. That is not a fatigue issue. Guess I need to
buy a new keyboard for the MAC.
But there is also a lot of "fat-e-gue" since coming home. I slept
12 hours last night. Was up for 4 1/2 hours then conked out for
three more hours until Marie called me for dinner. Is this
unusual? No. I was killed, I laid dead on a table for four hours
and then awakened after they restarted my heart. I'm not supposed
to feel bright eyed and bushy tailed on the fifth day after open
heart surgery, am I Rich?
I've been told that just being sent home four days out for a man
almost 70 years old can be one to days ahead of the curve. The
nurses told my wife they felt sorry for her yesterday because when I
wanted something and they didn't respond in reasonable time to the
call bell, I was out in the hall hunting them. They don't care for
proactive patients. Upsets their coffee breaks.
On Jun 21, 2009, at 2:37 PM, richard allman wrote:
> 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"
> <billu at dejazzd.com>; "Vutz Norm" <nvutz at ltk.com>; "Tim Wells"
> <trwells at comcast.net>; "Bruce Wells" <cuzinbrucie at mac.com>; "Bob
> Foley"
> <rfoley at ceresoft.com>; "James Martin" <jmartin5217 at sbcglobal.net>;
> "Bell
> Kurt" <kubell at state.pa.us>; "Craig Phil" <philgcraig204 at yahoo.com>;
> "May
> 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
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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