Fruit Loops

 After a stress-free meal of beef lasagna, Ben was admitted tonight into Walter Reed to be prepped for tomorrow's initial surgery (minimally invasive procedure to reduce/remove Sylvia). Even though he was a late arrival at 6PM with permission from his surgeon to eat as much steak as he’d like before midnight, we were still impressed by the admission process.

In my past professional life of hospital social work, I did not get called in on the 'successful' medical cases. The admissions process was chaotic. The family care was chaotic and undermined by the next crisis or several crises arising in the ER. I remember writing feverish notes about finding family, how a family was coping, providing crisis bereavement counseling, trying to run between coordinating taking families to the floors before the next case arrived, discussing addiction and treatment, safety planning someone into a safer environment, helping patients afford medication, and giving bus tickets. The medical and nursing staffs were on the ball but some also varied in degrees of burnout. That was life at a  Level 1 Trauma Center. During this admission, Ben’s hospital stay is considered planned.

From what we have seen, the same dynamics do not exist at Bethesda, and it's a relief. Even though Ben may not be the typical patient on a neurosurgery floor, the medical and nursing staff's efforts to strive to effective clinical treatment has not faltered. (I'll be honest - I ask a lot of questions before we get there, stay to help, get tons of help from his folks to watch Teddy/the house, and have friends who are dropping off casserole dishes to lighten the load/ie help me not spaz.)  It really makes a difference so we can enjoy a zoo afternoon, go for a walk as a family, reschedule plans, or talk about some heavier subjects.

 Anywho, here’s the difference we’ve seen at Bethesda:

•  The entire process was seamless from letting him go directly to the neurology step-down unit to being welcomed by both shifts and worked up by the oncoming shift. 
•    Instead of making him wait until 4AM to get his MRI, his nursing staff and the radiology staff were able to coordinate getting his MRI right after getting his chest x-ray so he could get more sleep before tomorrow’s procedure.
•    We found the nursing staff to be similarly happy on more than one occasion. I don’t know if it’s the nursing staff ratios, benefits, or commitment to mission for serving fellow service members. The nursing staff genuinely listened to his history (changes in inflection and tone), provide some lighthearted humor, and respond to requests.This maybe an all-level teaching hospital, but it definitely makes for a caring environment! This may also be a military hospital, but they also listened to my husband's request to have a line redrawn. He's a medic. If he's asking, there's a good chance it really needs it.
•    Family was considered inclusive to the patient's health. Even during their efforts to be discrete at change of shift, I overheard how nurses were relaying aspects of the patient's support. This is not always possible with other hospitals because of the discharge planning demand (and it's crazy pressure cooking ways), but it felt good to not feel like family was adversarial to boosting the staff's caring efforts and vice versa.
•   Staff are given reign to make exceptions rather than exclusions. For instance, my father-in-law was able to stay at Fisher House because of the weather and spot availability. I know of so many other lodging homes that would not have allowed it because of being within so many miles of the facility or minimum stays without exception.
•  §  The on-call neurosurgery resident balanced her clinical explanations with humor and maybe a smidgen of enjoyment about drawing on the face. She was also prepared to answer questions about the procedure and immediately responded to providing a more than adequate solution (texting the neurosurgeon so these questions could be discussed).

Which brings me to this picture: Happy Ben with "fruit loops" on his face. 

                                                      (Lookin' good despite the fruit loops!)