Take That, Oprah!

I am not a big fan of Oprah. I could write pages and pages explaining why. Suffice to say, though, that her general amazement about many things is annoying and, at times, astounding to me. How can a worldy woman like Oprah be so naïve? Or at the very least, think so many Americans are so naïve? I'm willing to concede, however...maybe I am the one who's naïve. Maybe America really is as in the dark as Oprah thinks it is. In any event, I am amused that Oprah got slammed at a literary convention. Though she hasn't responded, yet, I'm sure she's somewhere plotting her "statement" in defense of the behavior for which she was criticized. Worse, she may be developing a carefully crafted analysis and criticism of those who slammed her. I don't know about you, but I hope I can catch the convention excitement on C-SPAN this weekend.

Instead of taking pleasure in Oprah's bad press, perhaps I should be more concerned about that crazy Florida woman who adopted all those children to make money. How on earth can stuff like this happen and we don't even notice? Does this bring us full circle with the notion of naïveté? Are we all walking around in a sort of "I live in a perfect world" fog, unwilling to recognize the evils of the world? Is this how we maintain some sort of semblance of control over our otherwise scary world? Ignoring what's going on around us? Something to ponder...and for Shalane to get fired up over. Get your popcorn, because if she has time, it will be a long post to read.

10pm update: Long post to read, indeed. She never disappoints. I love it.

Excuse Me?

Have you ever noticed how many people do NOT say, "Excuse me."? I notice it most when I go to the grocery store. I was being stalked in the toilet paper aisle this evening...very uncomfortable tailgating, if you will...the lady was getting intimate with the junk in my trunk. She couldn't wait to get past me, though I'm not sure what was keeping her from walking past me instead of crawling up my butt (unless she was simply reluctant to pass on the right...I was on the left, because nobody else was in that aisle and that's where my next item was). When she finally decided to pass, she brushed up against me. No utterance of "excuse me." What happened to manners?

Mom's Friday: Activity #14: hair washing. Activity #15: hair drying. It was a grand day. We might also add "being without a daughter/caregiver at night," but I think we already counted that one. My mom rocks.

My Sweet Sweet Mommy

My sweet Mommy is getting stronger every day. We've even counted the number of things she can do without any assistance. We're up to 13 at last count. We reached 13 when she was able to walk down the hall without Harvey today. Harvey is her cane. This is really big.

Obituaries: An employment source?

Each morning when I visit the homepage of our beloved Knoxville News Sentinel, I notice that right next to the Obituaries link is the Jobs link. It's not just any Jobs link...it's a big red ball link...as if to say, "Aaaw...some people died, but guess what? Their job is up for grabs, now!"

Sugar, Darlin' and Dear...and more

Add to the list, "Sugar" and "Baby." I kid you not. It's been over 2 weeks now and we are still meeting new staff...it seems everybody has her own "pet name" for a patient. It's more clear to me every day that they don't take the time to even look at a name. One of the CNAs...who we have seen nearly every day...came into mom's 'new' room yesterday to take her blood pressure. She had a log sheet in her hand (with mom's name on it, I think). She looked at her with surprise and said, "Oh...I thought you'd gone home...there was nobody in the other room." Well, if she'd ever bothered to look at or learn mom's name, and CALL HER BY HER NAME(!!!), then she would have known, now wouldn't she have? Then, again, maybe the log sheet doesn't have names on it...maybe it only has room numbers. In fairness, I should add that this particular CNA does not use pet names. However, I cannot be convinced that the use of these terms of endearment is either okay or professional in any way for this setting.

New signs have been posted in each hospital room encouraging patients to fill out a customer satisfaction survey if they receive one. There's a statement on the little poster that says we hope you would Definitely Recommend us to others. That's pretty blatant manipulation of survey data if you ask me.

I can't decide what is irritating me more: a. pet names, b. apparent lack of hand washing, or c. that housekeeping doesn't seem to really clean. Mom was being moved into a new room yesterday when I noticed that there was THICK dust on the ceiling and all over everything. It took them about 15 minutes to clean it...and I'm still not satisfied. I felt like we were in a seedy motel. I think you can probably gather that I Definitely WOULD NOT Recommend this hospital to others. Mom is, however, well cared for by her doctors and the Catholic pastoral care has been excellent. Absolutely no complaints there.

"Good Health Manners"

The hospital has signs all over the place that say Good Health Manners...We wash our hands (or something like that)...Feel free to ask us. After a while, the advertisement of "cleanliness" becomes quite humorous. So...

I might have to write a manifesto about hand-washing...or using hand sanitizer before you touch my mother after you've been God knows where on that hospital unit...or about how to properly empty urine out of a container without splashing it all over a toilet seat...or about how to clean up the urine that was splashed all over the toilet seat...or about how to use a person's name instead of calling her "Honey," "Sweetheart," "Dear," "Sweetie," or "Darlin'". I could also express my views on professionalism (certainly emcompassing the "how to use a person's name" topic) as well as creating a quiet, restful hospital environment for people recovering from major surgery.

I am very thankful for the outcome of this "big deal," but don't people realize they put their patients at risk when they carry germs from one patient to another!?!? Of course they do. Most of them, anyway. Maybe they just don't care as much as we would like them to. It drives me frigging crazy. (The fact that it's driving me crazy is probably driving my mother crazy, too...maybe about as crazy as she gets when we use the word "frigging." I'm trying to work on toning it all down.)