purple room vents: HOSPITAL ETIQUETTE

Do you remember my post not so long ago I mentioned that if you don't see or hear the news, you can't be part of the solution?

Well on the news recently was that story about how the patients from Royal Jubilee Hospital are being booted out of the hospital with no warning or, in some cases, time to make plans or even have somewhere to go. It's brutal and inhumane and just plain expensive or scary for some.

When Monte was ambulanced down to that hospital to the cardiac unit in Nov. 2020 it happened to him. I had specifically asked the hospital to let me know either the day before or early morning the day of discharge. I explained that I was three hours away.

The reason I even thought about it is because Monte overheard a nurse talking to the ambulance guy about an Elder from way up North Island. He was emergency airvacced down to Royal cardiac unit. When they were done with him they just kicked him out. No clothes to speak of, no wallet, no money, no way home. They didn't know what happened to him from that point.

The very day I requested a little notice on Monte's discharge they waited until late afternoon, same day I asked, and booted him late that afternoon. There was no way I could get him. So we booked him into a walking distance hotel and I headed down early the next day to get there before checkout time. Cost us a couple hundred dollars...assholes.

Anyway I read about the current deplorable situation and saw it on the news, so I wrote a letter to one of our Island news sources. I get an email everyday from them and the story was front page.

I wrote to the editor and told our story. And guess what??!! I got an email back, telling me that she was following up on that story and would like a quick chat. So I got hold of Monte, after all he was the one that overheard the conversation about the Elder and the rest was his personal story to tell. And that is what he is doing right now! I would be so proud if there was any way, even in a really small way, we help rectify that awful situation.

Well I just made a pot of barley soup. It's weird cooking with pot sizes I am not used to. I don't know how those cooking show contestants do it. I always start off with a fairly small decent for three people pot and end up dumping it, half way through, into a made for six bigger pot, and I have been known to even have to dump it again into my massive 15" wok. Sigh. I can't cook small. (shovel list). The soup tastes good, and the pot is filled to the brim. Everything is in the pot now, and the water line is a lot like a little boat with three really fat men sitting dead still in it, the water line less than an inch from the brim. It isn't overflowing, if I don't stir it violently. I would like to loosen up the seized up barley on the bottom but....no.

Well I have solidified my going home plans. I made a reservation for Monte at the North Vancouver Hotel..our go to home away from home, for Sunday night. Dogs can't stay there right now, they are renovating. So he can pick LL and myself and all my stuff up on Monday morning. We are going to take off for Ikea, maybe in Richmond. Then hit the ferry out at Tswassen and stay a night in Victoria. Monte can see Levi, we can hit the Langford Costco and then head home. We will spend the night at the Zed hotel. Graeme is arranging a promo rate for us!!! Sweet boy that he is!!!

I have loved being here. April and Myles are the kindest most thoughtful people. I never feel uncomfortable or like I am in the way and I am pretty sure I actually am. I will be back when she has finished her stint at the clinic. I have promised to bring a certain dog back!

All the lights are off now, dishwasher clanking and banging away in the kitchen and the laundry is spinning happily away in the pantry. Such homey sounds. I love it. Have a happy rest of the week. TTYL

'Family dinners: the glue that holds our busy lives together.' anon