Don: Ever get tired of those “Murphy’s Law” type of days? Let me just give you the short version. We arrived at 7:00 and Karen’s catheter placement and recovery time took until noon. That was to be expected. Then we had to just hang out in the hospital until almost 5:00pm before we got in her room. She was hurting all day from the minor surgery and a catheter is literally a pain in the neck. Since she had not been admitted no one could give her anything for the pain. Grrrr. It seems that the blame is shared by all parties but what really gets my goat right this minute is that the patient is the one that suffers while larger entities (insurance and hospital) carry on the business of health care.

However, the good news is that we are in the room and the people (not entities) truly care for their patients. Once we got through the door we have had nothing but smiles, both on our own faces and all of the staff that knew we were coming. I just can’t say enough good about not only the caregiving staff (nurses, PAs, doctors, etc) but also desk help, housekeeping, dietary, social services, Arts In Medicine and more here at Shands. Over the many stays here over the last 6 months we have made many friends and know even more of the staff by name. We will be here in the hospital this time 4 to 6 weeks. While the medical treatment itself is tough the human treatment is going to be excellent and we know that everyone will be doing the best they can to help us not only make it through but also feel as though we matter to each of them. God bless them all.