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A Hospital Stay
Growing up we had small family style hospitals which took good care of us. The Mulkeys in Millen, the Franklin Hospital in Swainsboro. They were all around. As the decades have moved forward there have developed larger hospitals filled with highly technical equipment and the personnel to monitor everything. More and more dramatic procedures needed to be offered to a wider patient group. Today we have at our service institutions such as Emanuel Medical Center in Swainsboro and Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah. February 20th was the day my sister was scheduled for a knee replacement. The same day I met with my cardiothoracic surgeon about a heart valve problem which had been detected a couple of weeks earlier. For months my sister had been preparing to get a new knee and get off her cane. Handicap accessibility work had been completed in her house, family and friends lined up to help. My focus suddenly shifted to my own problems - open heart surgery! When I saw her come out of recovery from her operation, I knew for sure I would never make it out of mine. The nurse had been up front with me about splitting my sternum to begin my operation, stopping the heart, inserting a scope down my throat, and replacing or repairing the "mitral valve insufficiency". Put this off was my quickest impression. I relied on my sister's "in surgery at the moment" to get some delay. No longer than six weeks! After the 5th week I realized they knew their business and decided I had no choice but to set a date for the operation. The next day someone called and alerted me that my peacock had gotten out of her pen. As I opened the back boor she came running to me because she was hungry. I led her back to her covered pen to find perched inside a juvenile buzzard! As I turned my head to the right I saw 5 of the same in the outdoor covered area for my eight hens. How could this be? For years they had had no intruders and now just at the point I was facing very serious surgery I am met with 6 vultures in my bird pens. I could only read them as symbols of death (so much for my confidence). Somehow I managed to get the vultures out and my girls safely back inside. Five days after surgery I was sent back home to Garfield. I had done very well and the replacement had become just a valve repair. My doctors and nurses were all extremely competent, helpful and caring. The techs, the housekeepers and transporters all were doing their jobs well. The health educator in the cardiac area had lectured me three times before; this time she walked me up and down the hall to make sure I got my exercise! The two key physicians work across the hall from each other and seem so different. The cardiologist, Dr. Spellman, is in and out quickly. He knows me well and is always very direct with me. He has inserted two stints and when he checked them last they were clear as could be. Dr. Jones, the surgeon, takes all the time in the world to teach and explain. Before I left the hospital Friday afternoon he grabbed a paper towel and his pen and made 6 three dimensional drawings to explain what had happened, what he did and how it worked now! Someone asked how I felt. My response was that I do feel, and for that I am grateful. I don't feel good, but I don't feel bad. It takes some time to get over it. That is why they told me recovery would take 10 to 12 weeks.
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