Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Home again
That was a pricey one hour. A little before midnight I realized a simple piece of apparatus I wore home from the hospital wasn't working correctly. I called the hospital emergency number, described the simple problem that could not wait until morning, was informed I'd have to go to the emergency room. Oy.
Called cab, 10 minute ride at most at night, went to ER (the section set up as a walk in clinic, wasn't crowded), filled out a little triage slip, was looked at like I was a moron. But a nurse, Filipino man, came out of his office & took me right away, measured my blood pressure for umpteeth time today, also was sort of disbelieving - until I showed him. Turned out the day nurse on 8th floor, a distracted young guy who - in my observation of him today - was not very experienced or a good manager & prioritizer of his time (serious combo of weaknesses for a floor nurse) had installed it wrong. It was fixed in ten minutes. Leaving, I encountered a familiar homeless woman hanging out in waiting room for the night, chatted with her about how I also can feel like a piece of crap only to have people seem to agree with that self-estimation, gave her a few bucks, called a taxi, friendly Hispanic driver who'd seen me give the woman some money (she tried to hit me up for more of course), mildly admonished me for being too generous. I said she was only panhandler in town who ever asked me for coffee & donut money & then proceeded to buy coffee & a donut with it. He had good music on his cab radio, Marvin Gaye "What's going on?". So I gave him a decent tip. Was back home in an hour. It could have been a long night. Shouldn't have happened, but worth the money.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Called cab, 10 minute ride at most at night, went to ER (the section set up as a walk in clinic, wasn't crowded), filled out a little triage slip, was looked at like I was a moron. But a nurse, Filipino man, came out of his office & took me right away, measured my blood pressure for umpteeth time today, also was sort of disbelieving - until I showed him. Turned out the day nurse on 8th floor, a distracted young guy who - in my observation of him today - was not very experienced or a good manager & prioritizer of his time (serious combo of weaknesses for a floor nurse) had installed it wrong. It was fixed in ten minutes. Leaving, I encountered a familiar homeless woman hanging out in waiting room for the night, chatted with her about how I also can feel like a piece of crap only to have people seem to agree with that self-estimation, gave her a few bucks, called a taxi, friendly Hispanic driver who'd seen me give the woman some money (she tried to hit me up for more of course), mildly admonished me for being too generous. I said she was only panhandler in town who ever asked me for coffee & donut money & then proceeded to buy coffee & a donut with it. He had good music on his cab radio, Marvin Gaye "What's going on?". So I gave him a decent tip. Was back home in an hour. It could have been a long night. Shouldn't have happened, but worth the money.
Labels: Elizabeth NJ, religion
