Nelson V-Blog: Patience with Patients

Last Thursday my wife gave birth to my greatest accomplishment Alexander Kincaid. This gorgeous human being is showing sides of my self that I never expected to see nor experience and for that I'm so grateful that he's here...plus, I get my wife back in about 2-3 years ;-)

Now, for those of you who are in the medical professions and do your job with excellence, compassion, and respect to your patients, I am thanking you deeply now as I now know first hand what it's like to be dependent on others to help you out in your time of need. The blog thus far is dedicated to you. THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO BRING SUCH JOY TO MY LIFE!

The doctors and staff that performed the prep for the birth, the actual birth, and subsequent procedures were bloody AWESOME! They were p-r-o the whole time and when they've won their coveted awards amongst their peers, they've earned them. They demonstrated so much skill, patience, and true caring and respect for my family.

Now onto the rest of the people we dealt with...

The post-partum care we got left a lot to be desired . There was so much staff assigned to us. We had RN's, housekeepers, residents, and medical clerical staff coming into our room at all different times of the day. I know they were all trying to do their jobs, however, there was a deep sense of being a number at the hopstial.

I found myself almost losing my temper a few times while we was there. Little things annoyed the heck out of me. For example, they all would knock on the door before entering the room. Great! However, only 1 person actually waited to hear if we were ready to let them in. There were plenty of times my wifey was in the middle of feeding my son and wasn't appropriately dressed. Why even bother to knock at that point if you're just going to bust in to the room at your own discretion?

The frequent vital sign monitoring drove me mad as well. Wifey would be asleep and they would just wake her up to get these vitals. Do you REALLY need to check her blood pressure at 3 AM? Does she look under duress while she's holding my son with a smile on her face?!

I would physically go up to the nursing desk and ask personally for everything as they would take their sweet ass time getting back to us that is important whenever we used the call button. Pain medication needed? Sure! 5 minutes when I would get in their faces and 45 minutes when I didn't.

They even screwed up A.K.'s birth certificate by spelling his last name "VELAQUEZ" and then spelling wifey's and my last name "VELAZQUEZ" on the next line! When I went to ask them to change it, I got attitude from the desk jockey there as if I was asking her to prove OJ was innocent the first time around. She told me she'd be right on it and then she disappeared for hours. Since there was a shift change at 7 PM, I decided to hit her up at 6:45 PM for just a status on whether or not she was able to get started on it. I had no expectation to have it corrected at that point especially on a Saturday night when there's less staff on duty throughout the hospital. I hunted her down to another room and asked her as she walked out what the status was. She gave me more attitude and talked to me as if I had no right to ask. She told me she talk to my wife and let her know as she had rounds to do and we would have to wait. Of course, she never spoke to the wifey, so, I knew we would have to wait till Monday to have it sorted out. Luckily, they fixed it Sunday afternoon and I verified it today.

As irritated as I got, I knew that I shouldn't tick these people off as they were in charge of taking care of my son and wife. I hated that sense of being powerless,vulnerable, and mechanical with these folks. So, I just grinned generously with my teeth clenched as tightly as possible and kept my voice calm and collected as this ensued. I was crazy to get my family out of the hospital to just get some time uninterrupted with people who actually cared deeply for us. Luckily, we were able to discharge a day early. It was totally worth it.

I can empathize with those who work with people on a day-to-day basis and have lost compassion in their work. I can see how they can become jaded and disconnected from their work especially when dealing sick people. I know they're probably underpaid and under appreciated. I just wish they wouldn't make it so easy for people who do treat them respectfully to become the patients they treat badly by having sour attitudes.

I will end this blog on a positive note. I love my wifey and baby boy.