I've had one of those not great days today. I have been frustrated today over one of the healthcare continuum's I had to deal with. So as I update my blog, I decided to write about something a little less annoying- My First Fictious European Vacation. I had written in my last blog how I came into the money to afford it.
It was 1988 and I was living in Arlington, Ma, one town down from Cambridge. I had 2 ficitious friends from Boston that had moved back to the Netherlands. I called them ficitious at the time as most people in my family had not met them nor anyone else I knew on my side of the US. My Nanny (my grandmother on my mother's side) and my cousin Lindsay were actually the first to people I knew, which drove some of my family nuts.
I had been invited to go out and visit my friends in Holland and upon receiving the money from my Dad's Mother's inheritance, I purchased a ticket to the Netherlands. I informed my family at the time, that I was going to the Netherlands to visit my ficitious friends and they said where. I said I was not sure. Two days before the flight flew out of Logan a bomb went off in the center of Madrid. It freaked my parents out although Madrid was in Spain not Holland. They called me from Michigan frantically, telling to be very very careful while I was in Europe.
I was picked up by fictious friends at Schipol Airport with the worst JET LAG. This lasted at least 2-3 days, although it just may have felt that way. It was about 3:00am, and I had been to a couple of bars in Amsterdam already. I left for the bathroom when all of a sudden I heard on a pay phone: "Hello Verne, this is a friend a Brian's. We just want you to know we just picked him out of the gutter." I ran out of the bathroom and I guess my Mom had then picked up the phone. My other friend picked up the receiver and said loudly in the background, "hurry up Brian, we're off to the red light district". Of course, when my not as fictious friends handed me the phone, my Mom with panic in her voice said was everything alright. I calmed her down while trying not to breakout laughing. We ended up hanging out in town til 4-5 am in the morning and walked back to my friends apartment. Between the Jet Lag and the late night I had a major headache the next day but it was satisfying.
Brian
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Entry 18, February 20th, my first European vacation
First the update portion:
Went to see the rehab doctor for brain and had good news. My scores from January 29th which thought were low had actually increased significantly over when I left the hospital 2 weeks prior and if tested today I would be even higher. I will be able to be on my own (no 24 hour surveillance) in a week and I got the green light to be evaluated to drive again. He said I can start to plan to go back to work, with somewhere in the second half of March place to start. All great stuff.
Cardiac- I forced myself into Cardiac rehab-a month before they had scheduled me. As I mentioned before my stress test scores were great. Tt has been hard getting their attention since I am not in an emergency. I have been working on remedying that situation. The key is working on it. From now til when I return to my job in March, I will be me working on my rehab to prepare return to MRCY.
Spoke to Wim yesterday over Skype-a great tool if you do not use it. I will probably go to hang out with my Dutch friends and their families for vacation later in the summer. I have known Wim and Alexander both since 1986. I lived in the same house they did in Cambridge in 1986 while they were students. I have been to visit them in Europe 6 times including standing up in both of their weddings. I was telling them how I had paid for my first trip to Europe to visit yesterday.
My brothers and I were not crazy (which is being nice) about my grandparents on my Dad's side.
I think the term ogre was the way I heard my grandfather being describe and my grandmother was a little better however after not seeing us for 3-4 months she would sit us down and force us to listen to her read letter from my California cousins sent 3-4 years prior. She tried to cook but it never turned out quite right. Glenn and I remember the Eggs being to loose (rawish), lots of canned fruits with fruit slime, pineapple juice coming from the leftover of a can of Dole pineapple and as Glenn put it, Flour bomb cookies (hard as rock chocolate chips-flour grenades). I could go on forever but the question would be, what does this have to do with how I paid for my first European vacation?
GP (aka Grandma Primack) died in the mid/late 1980s. As they were settling her estate there somehow was ~10K to the 3 of us. For my two brothers they were down payments on their schooling (Scott medical school and Glenn's MBA). For me, I deposited part of the money and the rest was spent on my first European vacation. It was the nicest thing Grandma and Grandma Primack did for any of the 3 of us. It made me believe there was equilibrium in the world.
That's end of another post,
Brian
Went to see the rehab doctor for brain and had good news. My scores from January 29th which thought were low had actually increased significantly over when I left the hospital 2 weeks prior and if tested today I would be even higher. I will be able to be on my own (no 24 hour surveillance) in a week and I got the green light to be evaluated to drive again. He said I can start to plan to go back to work, with somewhere in the second half of March place to start. All great stuff.
Cardiac- I forced myself into Cardiac rehab-a month before they had scheduled me. As I mentioned before my stress test scores were great. Tt has been hard getting their attention since I am not in an emergency. I have been working on remedying that situation. The key is working on it. From now til when I return to my job in March, I will be me working on my rehab to prepare return to MRCY.
Spoke to Wim yesterday over Skype-a great tool if you do not use it. I will probably go to hang out with my Dutch friends and their families for vacation later in the summer. I have known Wim and Alexander both since 1986. I lived in the same house they did in Cambridge in 1986 while they were students. I have been to visit them in Europe 6 times including standing up in both of their weddings. I was telling them how I had paid for my first trip to Europe to visit yesterday.
My brothers and I were not crazy (which is being nice) about my grandparents on my Dad's side.
I think the term ogre was the way I heard my grandfather being describe and my grandmother was a little better however after not seeing us for 3-4 months she would sit us down and force us to listen to her read letter from my California cousins sent 3-4 years prior. She tried to cook but it never turned out quite right. Glenn and I remember the Eggs being to loose (rawish), lots of canned fruits with fruit slime, pineapple juice coming from the leftover of a can of Dole pineapple and as Glenn put it, Flour bomb cookies (hard as rock chocolate chips-flour grenades). I could go on forever but the question would be, what does this have to do with how I paid for my first European vacation?
GP (aka Grandma Primack) died in the mid/late 1980s. As they were settling her estate there somehow was ~10K to the 3 of us. For my two brothers they were down payments on their schooling (Scott medical school and Glenn's MBA). For me, I deposited part of the money and the rest was spent on my first European vacation. It was the nicest thing Grandma and Grandma Primack did for any of the 3 of us. It made me believe there was equilibrium in the world.
That's end of another post,
Brian
Monday, February 16, 2009
17th Entry, February 16th, Stress Test, Rest, Getting Closer and Movie Mindlessness
Here is the 17th Entry on my Blog:
As my therapy has been mostly for Anoxia, PT (Anoxia) was concerned last week about where I was with Cardiac. Breaking thru the Cardiac continuum is cumbersome and frustrating. Appointments have been scheduled far out with little followup. When PT complained to the Brain side about the lack of clarity on my rehab, person incharge of my Anoxia inturn complained to Cardiac side. I immediately was called for a stress test which got scheduled a day later.
After initial setup by the clinician, the doctor came in. I was t0ld that in this test normal people do
between 6-9 minutes on the cardiac treadmill. They start at an incline at a certain level speed and then increase both inclince and speed every 3 minutes. As you go thru the test, the electrodes on you record heart information.
Initial Observation: I was able to do 10.5 minutes to start with and they told me my score were above average. They asked me how long I had been in Cardiac rehab and I replied that I was not in it because I was still waiting to be seen by a Cardiologist. Based on where I am and my scores, I need to be in it. They told me something I already knew and had tried to fix. I went to
my original case working who set me up for after March 20th (5 weeks away) but to no avail. A large portion of healthcare has Presidents Day off so I start back on my "Cardiac Crusade" tomorrow.
Rest and Getting Closer:
The Speech Language and Pathology keep saying to me get MORE REST. Every appointment the question they ask me is "are you getting ENOUGH REST. It is the 4th appointment in a row where I've been asked that so I have taken it to heart (BRAIN in this case). I know I am starting to get closer to where I need to be brainwise. I will know more on Wednesday.
Movie Mindlessness:
Over the weekend, I said I finally did get some rest. My Mom watched 6-7 movies on TV while I slept and read thru most of them. In the early evening my Mom really wanted to go out, because she was tired of sitting inside. Where did she want to go? The Movies.
That's it for this blog,
Brian
As my therapy has been mostly for Anoxia, PT (Anoxia) was concerned last week about where I was with Cardiac. Breaking thru the Cardiac continuum is cumbersome and frustrating. Appointments have been scheduled far out with little followup. When PT complained to the Brain side about the lack of clarity on my rehab, person incharge of my Anoxia inturn complained to Cardiac side. I immediately was called for a stress test which got scheduled a day later.
After initial setup by the clinician, the doctor came in. I was t0ld that in this test normal people do
between 6-9 minutes on the cardiac treadmill. They start at an incline at a certain level speed and then increase both inclince and speed every 3 minutes. As you go thru the test, the electrodes on you record heart information.
Initial Observation: I was able to do 10.5 minutes to start with and they told me my score were above average. They asked me how long I had been in Cardiac rehab and I replied that I was not in it because I was still waiting to be seen by a Cardiologist. Based on where I am and my scores, I need to be in it. They told me something I already knew and had tried to fix. I went to
my original case working who set me up for after March 20th (5 weeks away) but to no avail. A large portion of healthcare has Presidents Day off so I start back on my "Cardiac Crusade" tomorrow.
Rest and Getting Closer:
The Speech Language and Pathology keep saying to me get MORE REST. Every appointment the question they ask me is "are you getting ENOUGH REST. It is the 4th appointment in a row where I've been asked that so I have taken it to heart (BRAIN in this case). I know I am starting to get closer to where I need to be brainwise. I will know more on Wednesday.
Movie Mindlessness:
Over the weekend, I said I finally did get some rest. My Mom watched 6-7 movies on TV while I slept and read thru most of them. In the early evening my Mom really wanted to go out, because she was tired of sitting inside. Where did she want to go? The Movies.
That's it for this blog,
Brian
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
16th entry, how do you get better after a multi-incident accicent or disease in our Healthcare system?
After sitting in a healthcare professional's office today, I thought to myself how do other people get better if they had multi-incident items in our healthcare system. This sounds like an HDR (Heavy Deep and Real) topic however I found myself contemplating it today. Don't get me wrong, I am getting better but it starts to take it's toll. I was explaining that right now I am managing the following healthcare items.
Coumadin Management Center-Testing daily-Blood test once a week.
Healthcare focal point: RN PB
PCP: Healthcare focal point: Dr. ER
Cardiology: Healthcare focal point: Dr. SC
ICD: Healthcare focal point: Dr. EH
Brain damage: Healthcare focal point: Dr. HC
Other
Oupatient Therapy
PT= KL
OT=VD
SLP=JC
As you can see there are 10 different health care professionals (incl other) before you get to administration, case workers and insurance companies. All the above have their own staff also.
Since the cardiac arrest caused anoxia in my brain there were 2 issues hence the workforce above, which brings me back to my question. How do other people manage this kind of healthcare and still get better and stay sane? If you leave it all to the PCP or case worker I guarantee they cannot do it-it's too much for any person. I am constantly told you are doing a very good job of it, that I am doing better then most and they have not seen anyone with such drive and push. It was also suggested to me today that many healthcare people are not used to not only my drive but the pace at which I push to make progress and at the same time make progress. That sounded like a half compliment which I am sure it was meant to be, however it still left me the question of whether I was impatient (of course we know that could not be true) or is their an issue with the system( of course we know that could not be true).
The answer is of course there are not pat answers. My only 2 pieces of advice.
1)You must do more managing of the system then you did 5, 10 or 20 years ago so be prepared.
How do you be prepared-have all info at your fingertips and push back to the requestor ASAP.
2)Some tools are helpful-healthcare people will tell you which ones are, they are often the ones that are not used by most people.
3)You can drive yourself crazy with this. Take a break when you need to.
I know someone has this down to a science I just have don't know who it is yet.
Too bad it's not a buy a Scotch week,
Brian
Coumadin Management Center-Testing daily-Blood test once a week.
Healthcare focal point: RN PB
PCP: Healthcare focal point: Dr. ER
Cardiology: Healthcare focal point: Dr. SC
ICD: Healthcare focal point: Dr. EH
Brain damage: Healthcare focal point: Dr. HC
Other
Oupatient Therapy
PT= KL
OT=VD
SLP=JC
As you can see there are 10 different health care professionals (incl other) before you get to administration, case workers and insurance companies. All the above have their own staff also.
Since the cardiac arrest caused anoxia in my brain there were 2 issues hence the workforce above, which brings me back to my question. How do other people manage this kind of healthcare and still get better and stay sane? If you leave it all to the PCP or case worker I guarantee they cannot do it-it's too much for any person. I am constantly told you are doing a very good job of it, that I am doing better then most and they have not seen anyone with such drive and push. It was also suggested to me today that many healthcare people are not used to not only my drive but the pace at which I push to make progress and at the same time make progress. That sounded like a half compliment which I am sure it was meant to be, however it still left me the question of whether I was impatient (of course we know that could not be true) or is their an issue with the system( of course we know that could not be true).
The answer is of course there are not pat answers. My only 2 pieces of advice.
1)You must do more managing of the system then you did 5, 10 or 20 years ago so be prepared.
How do you be prepared-have all info at your fingertips and push back to the requestor ASAP.
2)Some tools are helpful-healthcare people will tell you which ones are, they are often the ones that are not used by most people.
3)You can drive yourself crazy with this. Take a break when you need to.
I know someone has this down to a science I just have don't know who it is yet.
Too bad it's not a buy a Scotch week,
Brian
Monday, February 9, 2009
15th Entry, February 9th, Items and blog- FINA, Overdoing it and burnout
I had a tough weekend last weekend.
Before I start writing about it in my blog, below are just general items I want to put in.
First: A special shoutout to Bob S. and Dianne Y. on the 27th anniversary of the worst day
in my professional career. I miss you guys, I hope all is well for you wherever you are.
Second: Happy B-day on Friday the 13th to the L-man.
Third: My brother's friend Bob is not doing well as he is fighting pancreatic cancer. If you have a moment say a prayer for him.
*Blog*
Last weekend was tough. SLP (aka SLOP, Speech, Language and Pathology) gave me a new way to do schedules that would help me with memory and organization. I dove into it on Friday and
pushed to do it correctly; the issues I had was I overdid. I spent 4-5 hours working this new model/schedule and by 5 pm I was tired, really fried. I could not think straight.
The carried over to both Saturday and Sunday. I began to become bummed out, and thought this may lead to terminal FINA. I won't tell you what it is but it bothered me alot. I slept an additional 10 hour over the weekend without energy. Finally today I started to feel like I had more energy.
After going back to OT and SLP today they both said this is good this happened here and not at work. They did not give me guidelines but did not expect someone to dive into it like I did. We relooked at the list and made it more workable. It took going over the edge to learn where it was.
Last item: Pronouncia
I have coined a new word to describe the language I hear alot of these days. It is called "pronouncia". People that are fluent in pronouncia speak in terms of hes, shes, that thing, etc. If you do not speak pronouncia you are who asking, who he or she or what si that thing. If you are fluent to that person's dialect you can understand it. Here is a clue, most people are not fluent.
Brian
Before I start writing about it in my blog, below are just general items I want to put in.
First: A special shoutout to Bob S. and Dianne Y. on the 27th anniversary of the worst day
in my professional career. I miss you guys, I hope all is well for you wherever you are.
Second: Happy B-day on Friday the 13th to the L-man.
Third: My brother's friend Bob is not doing well as he is fighting pancreatic cancer. If you have a moment say a prayer for him.
*Blog*
Last weekend was tough. SLP (aka SLOP, Speech, Language and Pathology) gave me a new way to do schedules that would help me with memory and organization. I dove into it on Friday and
pushed to do it correctly; the issues I had was I overdid. I spent 4-5 hours working this new model/schedule and by 5 pm I was tired, really fried. I could not think straight.
The carried over to both Saturday and Sunday. I began to become bummed out, and thought this may lead to terminal FINA. I won't tell you what it is but it bothered me alot. I slept an additional 10 hour over the weekend without energy. Finally today I started to feel like I had more energy.
After going back to OT and SLP today they both said this is good this happened here and not at work. They did not give me guidelines but did not expect someone to dive into it like I did. We relooked at the list and made it more workable. It took going over the edge to learn where it was.
Last item: Pronouncia
I have coined a new word to describe the language I hear alot of these days. It is called "pronouncia". People that are fluent in pronouncia speak in terms of hes, shes, that thing, etc. If you do not speak pronouncia you are who asking, who he or she or what si that thing. If you are fluent to that person's dialect you can understand it. Here is a clue, most people are not fluent.
Brian
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Entry 14-First some updates, A reminder of fun, a tribute to Jon and Lance
First item: My brother's friend Bob is not doing really well. He is at the Mayo Clinic and has pancreatic cancer. Say a few words for him when you have a moment.
Just came back from the trifecta-PT, OT and SLP. A few things have happened. Starting yesterday I started getting these 1-2 second flashes of things I thought about on Sunday or Monday today. They only last about 2 second max. Some are items that I think I wanted to do orremember. Some are minutia items that I really could have forgotten in the first place. The issue is that they have been coming out and flashing in droves. I carry around a mini steno pad to write them down just in case I do need to remember them. When I asked SLOP and PT about it is delayed memory recall of some sort. The fact that it is 3-4 days later is not what is weird about it, it is the minutia part.
Here is the other weird thing today, I now recognize people in hospitals. Now I have not been requested to be a friend on their facebook but today, I saw 5 healthcare people I know from my last stay at Spaulding and Monday I saw 3 from Mass General.
Blog Entry: A reminder of fun: A tribute to Lance and Jon
Jon and Lance are my first cousins and also 2 great buddies. The 2 things I can always count on the Jon and Lance for are great fun and great humor. These are traits that often clash in the family arena but here it is the opposite.
I spoke Lance aka "the L-man" and told him I saw Hot Dog-the movie (1984) on Tuesday and it was funny. To know surprise to me the L-man knew it and commented how funny it was. I am sure my cousin the Jon aka "the J-man" has seen it also. A couple of months ago he was remarking about Linda Blair and her movie Rollerboogie.
I and 16 and 18 years older then the J-man and L-man respectively. I have been to their birthdays, graduations, batchelor parties, wedding and just hung out with them. I remember fondly of bar hopping with the J-man and my cousin Lindsay at the J-man's Indiana University graduation weekend. Of course that evening ended @ 3-4 am with a trip to have a gut wrenching burrito @ la Bamba in Bloomington. This is the same way I remember going with 9 year old L-man to CB Smith park down the water slides. The L-man would wait, mid way down the slide (after he went down), for me to crash into him which I did.
When it's time to just hang out with the L-man and J-man, the cuisine is Wings and Beers. I'll have to take them to Buff's Pub the next time they are here (http://www.phantomgourmet.com/Showpage.aspx?content=ReportCard&id=3198). The L-man reminded me of a nickname I was given by one of the L-man and J-man's friends. I will only show it abbreviated-see if you can figure it out yourself.
See below:
U80SBG
That's it,
Brian
Just came back from the trifecta-PT, OT and SLP. A few things have happened. Starting yesterday I started getting these 1-2 second flashes of things I thought about on Sunday or Monday today. They only last about 2 second max. Some are items that I think I wanted to do orremember. Some are minutia items that I really could have forgotten in the first place. The issue is that they have been coming out and flashing in droves. I carry around a mini steno pad to write them down just in case I do need to remember them. When I asked SLOP and PT about it is delayed memory recall of some sort. The fact that it is 3-4 days later is not what is weird about it, it is the minutia part.
Here is the other weird thing today, I now recognize people in hospitals. Now I have not been requested to be a friend on their facebook but today, I saw 5 healthcare people I know from my last stay at Spaulding and Monday I saw 3 from Mass General.
Blog Entry: A reminder of fun: A tribute to Lance and Jon
Jon and Lance are my first cousins and also 2 great buddies. The 2 things I can always count on the Jon and Lance for are great fun and great humor. These are traits that often clash in the family arena but here it is the opposite.
I spoke Lance aka "the L-man" and told him I saw Hot Dog-the movie (1984) on Tuesday and it was funny. To know surprise to me the L-man knew it and commented how funny it was. I am sure my cousin the Jon aka "the J-man" has seen it also. A couple of months ago he was remarking about Linda Blair and her movie Rollerboogie.I and 16 and 18 years older then the J-man and L-man respectively. I have been to their birthdays, graduations, batchelor parties, wedding and just hung out with them. I remember fondly of bar hopping with the J-man and my cousin Lindsay at the J-man's Indiana University graduation weekend. Of course that evening ended @ 3-4 am with a trip to have a gut wrenching burrito @ la Bamba in Bloomington. This is the same way I remember going with 9 year old L-man to CB Smith park down the water slides. The L-man would wait, mid way down the slide (after he went down), for me to crash into him which I did.
When it's time to just hang out with the L-man and J-man, the cuisine is Wings and Beers. I'll have to take them to Buff's Pub the next time they are here (http://www.phantomgourmet.com/Showpage.aspx?content=ReportCard&id=3198). The L-man reminded me of a nickname I was given by one of the L-man and J-man's friends. I will only show it abbreviated-see if you can figure it out yourself.
See below:
U80SBG
That's it,
Brian
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
13th Entry, February 3rd- Lost and Forgotten or better put Forgotten and Lost
Here is the big big news first. I went to coumadin training yesterday and I am allowed some alcohol, yea. They said 2 glasses of wine, 2x 12 oz beers or 1 mixed drink. I raised my hand and said that most draughts @ bars come in 16 and 22 ozs and the healthcare provider said with a smirk, "you can do the Math". I suggested they may want to look at there metric again however there is a guy in there clinic that goes wine tasting in France every year and has his blood taken every day while he is on vacation. The good news for me is I am only on Coumadin 3-6 months (hopefully 3 weeks as I have done 5 weeks already).
Yesterday was a bit frustrating. After PT, I had SLP (Speech, Language and Pathology or "SLOP" as I have coined it). I have been going thru testing and yesterday they gave me a test that surprised me. On Thursday I received a memory test with between 20-25 characters that were shapes and lines with names example ": : :"= the word AND or IS (not sure), "l"= to the word TREE. On Thursday, they gave me the pictures for about 30 seconds and to me to remember the shape or item to word. Then they showed them on a chart and asked me to say what they were. This went on for 10 minutes and as they grew the list of shapes and lines I forgot more items (remember this was on Thursday).
Yesterday they showed me the same list but did not tell me were and asked me to what they were in 5 lists. It was very frustrating when I left.
My coumadin training was after that. I mentioned it above. It was good and they asked me to
take a blood test afterwards at MGH. I walked over with the packet of info to MGH after my Coumadin training. I had my blood drawn and then left to meet my Mom. She was visiting a friend in a different Wing of MGH. She wanted to go downstairs to eat something so I went with her to the MGH Cafe. It was there that I had discovered that the packet of info from the Coumadin clinic was gone. I went back to the Wang wing and blood clinic to see if it was there and it was not. There I went over to the Heart wing on Ellison and the packet was not there. I then went back downstairs and scoured the MGH cafeteria and it was not there. It was forgotten first and lost. Frustrating.
That's it for today,
Brian
Yesterday was a bit frustrating. After PT, I had SLP (Speech, Language and Pathology or "SLOP" as I have coined it). I have been going thru testing and yesterday they gave me a test that surprised me. On Thursday I received a memory test with between 20-25 characters that were shapes and lines with names example ": : :"= the word AND or IS (not sure), "l"= to the word TREE. On Thursday, they gave me the pictures for about 30 seconds and to me to remember the shape or item to word. Then they showed them on a chart and asked me to say what they were. This went on for 10 minutes and as they grew the list of shapes and lines I forgot more items (remember this was on Thursday).
Yesterday they showed me the same list but did not tell me were and asked me to what they were in 5 lists. It was very frustrating when I left.
My coumadin training was after that. I mentioned it above. It was good and they asked me to
take a blood test afterwards at MGH. I walked over with the packet of info to MGH after my Coumadin training. I had my blood drawn and then left to meet my Mom. She was visiting a friend in a different Wing of MGH. She wanted to go downstairs to eat something so I went with her to the MGH Cafe. It was there that I had discovered that the packet of info from the Coumadin clinic was gone. I went back to the Wang wing and blood clinic to see if it was there and it was not. There I went over to the Heart wing on Ellison and the packet was not there. I then went back downstairs and scoured the MGH cafeteria and it was not there. It was forgotten first and lost. Frustrating.
That's it for today,
Brian
Sunday, February 1, 2009
12 entry, February 1, 2009- Superbowl Sunday
27-23 Steelers what a game.
Did my PT today and went to a Superbowl party.
So I thought do I need to write anything else today,
Answer NO
That's it,
Brian
Did my PT today and went to a Superbowl party.
So I thought do I need to write anything else today,
Answer NO
That's it,
Brian
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