All's going well at Sparrow Hospital

To no surprise, Sparrow Hospital has changed a fair bit in the years since pnh was born here. Heck, it's changed in several ways since I last spent Way Too Much (and not nearly enough) time here when my Mom was a patient last February.

One thing that hasn't changed is the ease and efficiency of Sparrow's public wireless network. It works beautifully even here in the basement, in the surgical waiting room where I am currently camped out while my sister, Sue, has hip replacement surgery. So I'll be able to keep working, sending files off to printers, staying in contact with clients, and even posting to LiveJournal from time to time while Sue is here.

The drive west went really well -- great driving weather, and I had the time built into the schedule so I could stop and work along the way as needed. Most amusing was the day that I checked out of a Quality Inn at 11am, then worked in their lobby until 4:15 that afternoon. With my laptop and a wireless connection, I really can work pretty much anywhere! I treasure the lifestyle that allows me to come and help my sister without completely putting my own life on hold for the duration. It's just one more way in which I continue to love living in the future!

Best Semi seen on the trip: In Ohio, one semi had a large picture of a Baby Ruth candy bar at the bottom of the trailer's back doors. Above the picture, filling up the rest of the space, were the following very large words: "If you can taste the whole peanuts and creamy caramel, you're too close."

Best gas price: $2.45.9/gallon -- at Ohio Turnpike service plazas. And here I was excited by the $2.65.9/gallon I paid the day before in Lamar, PA.

Right on schedule

My sister's hip replacement surgery went as expected. It was successful and is done! She'd told me the surgery would last 2 hours; it was 2 hours to the minute when they paged me in to talk with the surgeon.

She'll have another couple hours in the recovery room, then I'll be reconnecting with her when they assign a room.

Once again, the importance of having an informed patient advocate on site was demonstrated. Sue responds badly to morphine and morphine-derivatives. She'd told everybody that (including her surgeon), yet he still put in orders for a morphine-derivative she'd specifically told him not to give her. She'd told me the right questions to ask, and when he'd finished talking with me, he went off to change her orders to a pain med she's more likely to tolerate. Fingers crossed, knocking wood. I'm glad I was here; I hope I don't have to further act as the patient advocate poster child over the next couple of days, but I rather expect I will. It seems to go with the territory.

Work is going well. It did a good job of keeping me distracted while waiting during surgery. Win-win.