The Hospital

Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley is its own little city. Even while I was doped up, I could tell the many layers of work that kept the place going, thriving. I was always amazed.

Every morning and every night someone would come in and write the name of the RN for that shift on the board in front of me. Simple math tells me that they probably had three registered nurses for each patient, but I can only remember the names of two, the same two I would see day after day. If there's sunlight, Kristi was coming in, followed by her nurse intern, Rachelle. If it was night, Sylvia would come in, print her name in big, bold letters on the erasable board, and give me a little lecture about what was to be expected of me. I began hoping I could avoid the next Sylvia shift as time went on.

Below the RN we had many types of nurses and physician assistants. Some did some things, while others did others. Although at night I noticed that fewer people were on staff. Maybe that's why I noticed Sylvia more.

And every shift had its responsibilities. My vital signs had to be taken four times a day. Blood had to be taken, but I'm not sure when -- maybe every couple of days? Nurses would write on my bandage as to when the last shunt or IV was put into my vein; every four days that had to be replaced.

When you're trying to get an hour's worth of sleep and someone is waking you up every 10 minutes (or so it seems), their health care seems counterintuitive. Still, I'm sure I was getting plenty of sleep, as much as I needed. I just didn't like to be awakened.

As Ruth tells me, though, she would see assistants turn around when they saw that I was asleep, promising to come back later.

I probably saw at least four doctors a day. This is quite different from when I had my colon re-sectioned 10 years ago; I only saw one doctor once that I remember, -- Dr. Wright, my surgeon -- and I'm sure I was wrong. There was probably another doctor or two who would check in on me, but I just didn't recognize them.
Dr. Poddatoori was there at least three times during my 5-day stay.
Stephanie, Dr. Stern's assistant, is also a doctor, and she was there about 3 times, maybe more.
Dr. Richter subbed for Dr. Laura Miller of Lifelong Medical, and she would fill me in on things, bringing the whole picture together for me as to where I was.
Dr. Stern was there twice. I was lucky that I was delayed checking out on Tuesday, as he was able to give me a summary of the pathologist's report.
I believe there was another hospital-based doctor in there somewhere as well.

I was taken care of so well. Even Sylvia, the one I was trying to avoid, was telling me exactly what I needed to do to get better and to check out of Hotel California Med: Walk, pass gas, eat solid food, breathe into the thingamabob so that I would eventually take deep breaths. I tried to be a very good patient. They were all very good health givers.