It seems like common sense, but somewhere it also seems to get lost. When you take speech class they tell you to "tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them." I had drafted up a post, but with today's news it changed course.
The good is that Amy is scheduled to get discharged today. Whoa, what?! Just like everything else, she likes to be early. So, here we are with what seems like an early release. I am thinking that a little bit of procrastination here seems like it might be nice.
Amy is scheduled to get discharged today!
Home to our Houston place away from the 17th floor. G17 they call it. We will still have daily visits to MDA for labs, transfusions if needed, and Dr appointments.
That should be the end of the post...per the intro paragraph, but you know I can't just leave it there.
Last week I posted about going all #GrumpyMarsh. It's not being angry per say, or even grumpy. It's more like having a case of the 'pissed off gene' that ends up with me being grumpy about some current state of affairs. Because all around us the focus is mostly on the negative. It's also too easy to simply surround yourself with overly like minded people and then it can become a never ending cycle of bad, the world is ending, the sky is falling, etc. A negative spiral that spins faster and faster. Constantly surrounded by the negative.
If anyone has a reason to be negative it might be Amy or any of the other patients like BrandonL who is fighting GVHD after a stem cell transplant for ALL, Syvlia with Multiple Myelome, or Yehudis with MDS. Or any one of the caretakers in the hospital with them...me, Teresa, Anthony, or Sarah. But we all wake up thinking about how we can best approach the day and the day's challenges. Boring is good. Uneventful is good.
It helps that even with as bad as things apparently are in the 'real world' I walk in to MDA every day and see a lot of good being done. I know that 'customer service' is part of the employee training and manual here, BUT there is a lot of good happening. A lot of good that, fortunately, a LOT of people never have to experience or see.
It's not a short list, and I will leave many out. I really can't figure out how many different Drs there are, but yesterday there were 4 white coats in Amy's room and 3 were Drs. The Nurses...RNs, BSNs, ASNs. The Patient Care Partners. Room/Food service. Patient Service Coordinators. Volunteer services. Physical Therapists. Occupational Therapists. Environmental/Janitorial services. Security. Valet. Greeters.
Anthony, another caretaker, and I talked at length about it last week. His comment was something to the effect of "Man, if I could retire and volunteer here every day, I would." And, like I said about Seton you won't hear me say that this has been a 'good' experience. But, the experience at MDA has been as enjoyable as I might expect it to be.
They are a lot of people, 20,000 employed here someone said, doing a lot of good.
I read a lot, and this is more of me rambling, preaching, philosophizing. This paragraph was in a book I am re-reading. It sums it up pretty well:
"Nowadays I spend most of my time sitting in a chair and pounding into a keyboard. It's long and silent work, and I lose myself in it, but I know where to go for a kick of adrenaline. I click over to a social media site, where I'll find a new skirmish gathering speed, inciting the community's opinion, anger, and rebuke. I understand why we do that - I too can be self-righteous - but I am battle fatigued. The world cries for compassion. It craves acceptance and belonging. It needs our attention, a kind word, a smile, a wave, a handshake, or a hug. Are we against 'everything'? Angry at 'everyone'? Sometimes it seems the only we'll speak up for is a fight."
Focus on the good.