Thought of the Day - May 15 - Celebrating Nursing Week in Canada

Sunday I did plenty of gardening, Monday I went for a 12k run and a 5k walk, and Tuesday morning I got out of bed and found I couldn't walk. Coming from an upbringing with the mantra "you either go to school or hospital - laying around in bed is not an option", I did what I always do: gritted my teeth and become a burden to the family. That said I promised myself I would follow my own advice and seek out medical attention, even in these difficult times, if things were not improved Thursday. Thursday morning and the inflammation at the base of my big toe was worse so we headed to Burnaby General.

Welp, for the first time since I needed stitches as part of a drunken evening at University over forty-year ago, I arrived in admissions at a hospital. Amazing! Patients were few and far between, staff almost seems pleased to see me. After hopping around the facility and presenting by "cherry-red foot" for interviews, x-rays, blood work, oh and getting lost in waiting rooms, I was loaded up with a pocket-full of prescriptions, a new facial mask, and a note to call the doctor's cell phone at 2 p.m. that afternoon. Lesley drove me back home and the conversation returned to the possibility of gout, chipped bone, anatomic abnormalities, getting old - but at least fractures were off the table. Two o'clock and good news, they had no idea what was wrong with me, just stay off it for a week, stop jumping on a lawn edger and consider some new running shoes. So I celebrated my lack of excessive uric acid and the probability of gout with a stiff rum and coke and reflected how lucky we are to have such services at our fingertips.

I must admit, other than the strange realization that UPS puts RF-id chips on all packages yet we don't do the same with hospital patients, my main reflection was recalling the banter at the nursing station. Most "customers" at Burnaby General were in far more distress than I and thus were unable to appreciate the wide-ranging, politically incorrect rapport that could not be bettered by a TV drama. Thanks for helping me out and to all you nurses out there, Happy Nursing Week!

Cheers

Cliff