2 December 2009 Radiology - schedule delayed by an emergency

That should be the wording on every radiology/imaging department label on every hospital in the U.S.


We set the alarm for 0530 this morning in order to allow sufficient time to bet at Holston Valley Medical Center by 0830. After dealing with rainy, windy weather and streets leading to the hospital being closed we arrived at 0815. We found parking and found help to lead us to the admissions office. The hospital is undergoing construction and no logic determines where things are located.

At about 0900 the intake/admit nurse took Gloria to imaging and sent me to a day/surgery waiting area on the 4th floor. I found the most remote, least occupied area to wait. The area has no television and even more importantly, no kids as of 1054.

We’d been told we’d be leaving about 1230. At 1035 the imaging staff called me to let me know that they procedure had not started yet due and emergency. Immediately after receiving that voice mail the volunteer for the area paged me to let me talk to Gloria. She seems in good spirits, given that she must be hungry and in pain.

I brought my notebook along today just on the off chance that I might find a time and place to write a bit on today’s entry. I should have thought to bring some computer wipes to disinfect the notebook.

I’m guessing that it will be 1400 or so before we leave the hospital. As of 1100, Gloria has not been allowed to have any food today. At least we can find food of some sort in Kingsport and either eat it quickly or take it home to eat.

Loki’s going to be happy to see us. I took her out about 0615 and she’s used to a daily walk about 0930.

There is always an emergency delaying radiology/imaging. One of my most indelible memories from my clinical rotations is of a line of patients outside the entry to the radiology suite. Those patients were all too often elderly, NPO from the previous night, in pain on narrow Gurney’s with thin padding between them and the metal of the Gurney. In many cases the patient were left un-attended by the courier/transport people who moved them from some place more comfortable to radiology. In many cases the patients were dehydrated, hungry, and disoriented.

In the movie, “Hospital,” one of the murder victims is killed by dosing with a lethal dose of a cardiac drug and then taken to radiology and left so that the drug can’t be countered. “No one suspects anything wrong about another patient left alone outside radiology” It was true in the early 1970’s and likely just as true today.

Resumption 1756.

As I noted above, 1400 was my guess for departure time and we left the hospital front door at 1430. The trip home was another rainy, windy drive. We stopped twice along the way. Once for me to score some Tex-Mex for dinner and once for me to buy some ice cream for Gloria. She stayed in the Pathfinder and there were no other delays. Once we reached the TN81 TN107 junction the wind really came into play again. TN107 runs along the Nolichucky valley with the back of the Great Smokes as a southern border. The wind pouring over the ridges and into narrow valleys gets a hydraulic boost – think Bernoulli’s principle – and can easily blow an unsuspecting driver off the road.

I’ve written about listening to the winds roar down our valley. Before dark, it was fascinating to watch the hemlocks and pines moving through huge arcs as their trunks bend with 30-40 MPH winds. After dark, it’s really sort of eerie. One can hear them moving and creaking. Tonight’s full moon may make them partially visible but it will be an Edgar Allan Poe type of windy, storm driven cloudy, night with the trees swaying to the roar of the winds and the roar of the creek. The dog doesn’t like high winds.

Gloria came through her myelogram OK. Of course, now her spinal cord and nerves are irritated and she’s in more pain than she was this morning. We have a two week wait now before seeing the neurosurgeon.