For whatever reason, I recovered.......

I struggle with the purpose of this blog. Friends and family in foreign lands blog to share their experiences, some share about common experiences such as being a mother, raising a child, working in academia, being a nurse. Some blog and Twitter so people will know they exist.



I am not sure why I blog. Well, I know why I started but I struggle with why to continue. I do not think I am interesting enough to just talk about my life. I live in Tucson, where I have lived since 1993. I work at a hospital, where I have worked since 1996.



So, do I have stories that people can learn from, build from, benefit from. The answer, on some level, I think is maybe.



I grew up in this crazy family of Stranges! Crazy land. I am going to start to tell stories about life with Strange's. My first story is inspired by health reform and a recent visit to a small rural hospital in Arizona.



I spent a morning recently with the leadership of a hospital in Bisbee Arizona. This hospital has a 14 bed inpatient unit, a 4 bed room ED (with plans for expansion) and an intense interest in using technology to allow people to receive care closer to home. This reduces costs by eliminating a costly transport fee ($12,000+ for a helicopter ride/$3,000+for an ambulance). It also reduces stress for the people who face being transported to the
"big city" for health care.



This all resonated with me because of a story from when I was a toddler that has become part of my family's folklore. Father Jovian told be best, but it goes something like this ......



Living in a rural Indiana town, my parents had a sick young girl of 18 months. I believe there were respiratory issues, pneumonia, etc. (I am not entirely clear, because I was the sick one). The story goes that at some point the very small Batesville hospital couldn't handle the serious condition of this 18-month old and a fantic trip to Cincinnati began. According to sources, my parents (my mother is a nurse) put me in the car and drove as fast as possible to Cininnati, which is about an hour from Batesville. According to the stories, my dad drove as fast as a car in 1968 would drive and my mother cared for me as my lips turned blue.



Now, clearly, I do not have the entire story and I have no actual memory of this. But, I was in the hospital for a long time on all kind of life supportive equipment. In fact, the situation was so grim, I was "Confirmed" in the Catholic Church and I received my Last Rites. For whatever reason, I recovered. And, at this point, because there was indication that I was sick because of dust, all of my sisters received major hair cuts and I am pretty sure that my older brother had to let a hamster free in Indiana in the middle of January. Carpet and drapes vanished from our bedrooms and cleaning intensified.



Now, back to health reform and today. If we can leverage technology to help people receive care close to home, eliminate the travel and stress. That's good care for the patient, good environment of care for the physician, better quality and better outcomes. My outcomes were pretty good..... but I do not know what the costs were (I think they were pretty high for the time). It's possible, that mine was the case that was to be expensive no matter what, that I needed the higest level of care -- and that is appropriate in so many cases. But if more people like the CEO of Copper Queen Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona find ways care for people closer to home, well....... seems like smart medicine.