Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Just Stickin' To The Plan; Sort Of...

Prior to my career in the golf business, I spent my working days in the hotel industry. That experience has stayed with me in many ways, one of which I would suggest makes me quite confident in my ability to assess the "quality assurance" aspects of the many properties I have visited in my adult life.

To wit, I would say that my room at KGH might be a "1-star". It is quite bizarre! The curtain in my room has a logo on it that says "Kelowna General Hospital 1906". I dunno...maybe the renovations are just around the corner??

Alas, I do have Internet access, via the Interior Health web portal. And that, admittedly, is a luxury.

I arrived at 7:30am and finally saw a nurse at about 8:45am.

Let's just compare that to having a tee time, then being greeted at the golf course by a frost delay!

Shortly after 9:00am, some hydrating fluids were started, set to run for two hours. But about 45 minutes later it was determined the chemo treatment would not be completed in time for my scheduled radiation session at 2:00pm.

Sep. 18: If you happen to have one of the contraptions beside your bed, chances are you're in for a pretty interesting day...especially if you're attached to it!

So, I was disconnected from the I.V. and sent over the the clinic where they "squeezed" me in early for the radiation treatment at about 10:15am. After the supposed 25-minute session, I arrived back at KGH about 11:30am. (Figure that one out!!)

Back at KGH, I was hooked up to the I.V. again, for the remainder of the hydrating fluids. It was about 2:00pm before the chemo started, a two-hour process. Then, more hydrating solutions. I will receive hydrating fluids this evening and throughout the night. So far, I have been pissin' so often, it's as if I've been drinking like a camel! The upside is I'm not having any trouble flushing out my kidneys.

Sure, I'm probably feeling a bit surly right now, but I'm kind of trying to compare the experience here so far to a day of golf. Maybe trying to draw too many parallels between the healthcare system and the golf business might be a bit of a stretch. But, suffice to say that if the golfing public had to deal with anything similar to these kinds of scheduling malfunctions, I think there would be folks climbing across the counter in the Golf Shop to extract at least a pound or two of flesh.

But hey, you take the bad with the good, right?

The "bad" would be what seems like a system with little regard built-in for a patient's "life balance" needs.

The "good" is definitely the conscientious personnel, the folks here that are providing "5-star" service in a "1-star" hotel!

More info to come...

3 comments:

  1. Like you said bro, it's a mental game! Don't go mental in the hospital though or they'll move you to a different ward if you know what I mean! Take this one day at a time. We're with ya all the way.

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  2. Glen just a quick note, I think you are an iphone user right? If so blogger has an iphone app that you can use to update your blog as well:
    http://googlemobile.blogspot.ca/2011/09/announcing-blogger-app-for-ios.html

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  3. Hey my angel. It's just so great we are finally over the hump (waiting for this show to start). Day 35 is behind us, and only 34 to go!

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