No wait, it was only seven hours in the ER and the only power that was lost was Don's ability to perambulate. He woke up Saturday morning in extreme pain and could not put any weight on his right foot. His knee was swollen and red and he self-diagnosed as either gout or an infection and wanted to go to open hours at his GP. After struggling to get him out of the house, through the driveway ice and snow and into the car, John and I decided take him to the hospital where they could get immediate (in hospital time of course) results of lab tests. First no bacteria indicating Lyme Disease, never got the results of the uric acid test, and it was going on 3PM before the ortho drained out the joint and bursa. Discharged with narcs and meds and crutches.
So once again, my uninterrupted reading time was in the emergency room where I started and almost finished Tina Fey's Bossypants. If you're going to be stressed out and imagining the worst, get distracted with this book. Skip the accolades in front and the inane book club discussion questions in the back. You really won't snort liquids you intended to swallow through your nose or need to grab someone to list out your favorite SNL skits, but I did giggle occasionally and wanted to read random quotes to my faithful son on ER duty with me.
I liked her analysis of what live skills she learned from improvisation, probably the same life skills a deliberate, thinking middle-ager would reach from any reflection on what works best with superiors and subordinates at work.
I got this book in a box of paperbacks my daughter in law brought with her for Thanksgiving from Texas where her mother proof reads pre-publication manuscripts. So I'll end with my favorite quote: "I know why you bought this book. Or should I say, I know why you borrowed this book from that woman at your office." Guess what's going to work with me tomorrow?
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
I have been wanting to read this book since I learned of it being published. I started and could not put it down, reading last night until way past 11 and just finishing now once the duck was in the oven and the vegetables pared for dinner. I am watching a looming snow storm outside, maybe getting nine or ten inches by tomorrow. Thankfully that does not qualify as a disaster, nothing like the seven feet of snow that lambasted Buffalo last week.
This book is wonderful, The fact is that 19 people were injected with morphine and other drugs at Memorial Hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The author presents unbiased renditions of everyone's memories, impressions and concerns. Factually, these people were injected as the hospital was being finally evacuated after five days of no power, little food, overworked staff and rioting neighborhoods. Fink does a marvelous job of describing the horrific conditions and the mental strain not only of dealing with weather related realities but also the bureaucratic and corporate mishandling of the process.
The second section of the book hits too close to home as Fink details federal investigations, criminal charges, grand jury deliberations and both the tactics of lawyers for both sides and the denial of hospital owners. The lack of single point of clarity or responsibility, the mix of best intentions versus changing or nonexistent procedures or plans is my world. I work for the NYS Department of Health. After Fink recounts how various oversight organizations tried to learn from Katrina on how to respond to complete failure of power, to limited medicine, etc etc, she finds herself in the midst of Hurricane Sandy and the hospitals and nursing homes in New York City and Long Island that were subject to equally harrowing conditions. At DOH, my team oversees the distribution of federal grants to many of the healthcare providers mentioned in the book. Fink's descriptions of their damages are even more graphic than those they sent us in their application for funds. I am sort of living a post-disaster situation almost as frustrating as Sandy: other bureaucracies are placing burdensome requirements to document expenses claimed for grant reimbursement; all contracts and payments are reviewed by multiple agencies, both State and federal. To date, only about 15% of the funds my team controls have been paid out.
I also deal with many of the people Fink mentions who work in NYS DOH and many others who are the backbone and heart and soul of our emergency preparedness and response group. How these folk and the top executives can cope with the issues that seem to occur with more and more frequency amazes me. I was recently on a conference call where one woman was informed it would be her fault if more than a dozen people needing dialysis deaths if she did not find a way to get them out of their snow bound homes in Buffalo and to treatment.
Finally, Fink devotes the last part of the book to the ethical issues involving the triaging and distribution of scarce or diminishing medical treatments during a crisis. Fink compares New York's establishment of standards against Maryland's where much more public involvement informed the regulations. I am all for the wisdom of the crowd, but Fink's book does not circle back to the vested interests that seep into public forums. These are decisions that must evolve.
I plan on buying several copies of this book to give to my team as Christmas presents. Read it, it is a thoughtful, valuable "retreat-like" discussion of issues anyone in public health has to face.
This book is wonderful, The fact is that 19 people were injected with morphine and other drugs at Memorial Hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The author presents unbiased renditions of everyone's memories, impressions and concerns. Factually, these people were injected as the hospital was being finally evacuated after five days of no power, little food, overworked staff and rioting neighborhoods. Fink does a marvelous job of describing the horrific conditions and the mental strain not only of dealing with weather related realities but also the bureaucratic and corporate mishandling of the process.
The second section of the book hits too close to home as Fink details federal investigations, criminal charges, grand jury deliberations and both the tactics of lawyers for both sides and the denial of hospital owners. The lack of single point of clarity or responsibility, the mix of best intentions versus changing or nonexistent procedures or plans is my world. I work for the NYS Department of Health. After Fink recounts how various oversight organizations tried to learn from Katrina on how to respond to complete failure of power, to limited medicine, etc etc, she finds herself in the midst of Hurricane Sandy and the hospitals and nursing homes in New York City and Long Island that were subject to equally harrowing conditions. At DOH, my team oversees the distribution of federal grants to many of the healthcare providers mentioned in the book. Fink's descriptions of their damages are even more graphic than those they sent us in their application for funds. I am sort of living a post-disaster situation almost as frustrating as Sandy: other bureaucracies are placing burdensome requirements to document expenses claimed for grant reimbursement; all contracts and payments are reviewed by multiple agencies, both State and federal. To date, only about 15% of the funds my team controls have been paid out.
I also deal with many of the people Fink mentions who work in NYS DOH and many others who are the backbone and heart and soul of our emergency preparedness and response group. How these folk and the top executives can cope with the issues that seem to occur with more and more frequency amazes me. I was recently on a conference call where one woman was informed it would be her fault if more than a dozen people needing dialysis deaths if she did not find a way to get them out of their snow bound homes in Buffalo and to treatment.
Finally, Fink devotes the last part of the book to the ethical issues involving the triaging and distribution of scarce or diminishing medical treatments during a crisis. Fink compares New York's establishment of standards against Maryland's where much more public involvement informed the regulations. I am all for the wisdom of the crowd, but Fink's book does not circle back to the vested interests that seep into public forums. These are decisions that must evolve.
I plan on buying several copies of this book to give to my team as Christmas presents. Read it, it is a thoughtful, valuable "retreat-like" discussion of issues anyone in public health has to face.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
The Industry that is John Lescroat
I believe I have read some Lescroart mysteries before and picking up his latest, The Keeper, last weekend at the library was my attempt to kick start my lagging reading/blogging life by going back to my favorite genre.
I grabbed the book Wednesday morning and cracked it open as I lay on a gurney in the ER going through tests to see if I was having a heart attack. I have learned through dozens of emergency room adventures with my mother, son and husband, that reading material is essential to make the hours of waiting tolerable. I was through the first 100 pages before I saw a doctor.
The tests were anticlimactic and so, in a sense, is The Keeper. Not to keep you in suspense like a good murder mystery, the test results showed a flare up of arrhythmia that last occurred seven years ago. More doctor visits to follow.
As was the book somewhat less than dramatic at its conclusion. The character of the retired police investigator taking a job for the defense attorney was excellent. Here was a person who aimed only for results, utilized his decades of job experience, and relished going around bureaucratic obstacles. Yup, I identified with him, Lescroart lards his story with as many women as men; while the jail is all male, the police investigators include a woman with some what if insights that add to the case development. The victim, the marriage counselor, the victim's extended family and in-laws all include well depicted female characters.
So why am I not raving about the book and recommending it to the max? The thread that eventually becomes the identity of the killer is as apparent as a red thread in a blue piece of fabric. Too much back story is added to the criminal's earlier life to justify motivation that is not otherwise evident in the main story of a teetering marriage, partially attributable to one spouse's hostile workplace.
But more than that forced ending, I hated the author's acknowledgements. He comes off like a book-grinding industry. I have this innate bias against people who hire others to run their webpages and social media. Worse yet, is a writer who sort of bids out the chance to have a real person's name be used for a literary character. In hindsight, it looks to me like a cast of thousands of minor walk-ons show up in the story only to meet this obligation to use a "winner's" name.
So this is two "industry" books in a row: the one that turned out to be penned by another Rowlings alias went back unread. Will I read another Lescroart? Maybe, at least look for one of his earlier ones before he became corporate.
I grabbed the book Wednesday morning and cracked it open as I lay on a gurney in the ER going through tests to see if I was having a heart attack. I have learned through dozens of emergency room adventures with my mother, son and husband, that reading material is essential to make the hours of waiting tolerable. I was through the first 100 pages before I saw a doctor.
The tests were anticlimactic and so, in a sense, is The Keeper. Not to keep you in suspense like a good murder mystery, the test results showed a flare up of arrhythmia that last occurred seven years ago. More doctor visits to follow.
As was the book somewhat less than dramatic at its conclusion. The character of the retired police investigator taking a job for the defense attorney was excellent. Here was a person who aimed only for results, utilized his decades of job experience, and relished going around bureaucratic obstacles. Yup, I identified with him, Lescroart lards his story with as many women as men; while the jail is all male, the police investigators include a woman with some what if insights that add to the case development. The victim, the marriage counselor, the victim's extended family and in-laws all include well depicted female characters.
So why am I not raving about the book and recommending it to the max? The thread that eventually becomes the identity of the killer is as apparent as a red thread in a blue piece of fabric. Too much back story is added to the criminal's earlier life to justify motivation that is not otherwise evident in the main story of a teetering marriage, partially attributable to one spouse's hostile workplace.
But more than that forced ending, I hated the author's acknowledgements. He comes off like a book-grinding industry. I have this innate bias against people who hire others to run their webpages and social media. Worse yet, is a writer who sort of bids out the chance to have a real person's name be used for a literary character. In hindsight, it looks to me like a cast of thousands of minor walk-ons show up in the story only to meet this obligation to use a "winner's" name.
So this is two "industry" books in a row: the one that turned out to be penned by another Rowlings alias went back unread. Will I read another Lescroart? Maybe, at least look for one of his earlier ones before he became corporate.
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