Pass the pills, another take
Over the past year I've made quite a few visits to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to see parishioners. Yesterday, I returned to DHMC -- but this time, as a patient. It was interesting to see how this side of the hospital worked. Fortunately, I only have good things to report: everybody was helpful and professional.
For those not in the know, I found myself with an awful pain in my ear and a temp north of 105 degrees yesterday morning. That last bit of information resulted in an instruction by the physician on duty to head over to the Emergency Department, which we did. The docs declared that I had an ear infection, and that it was in impressive one, too.
Now, I don't know about you, but my experience with ear infections has usually involved very small children. And, indeed, it is very small children who most commonly suffer from said malady. However, I learned two things yesterday: adults can get ear infections and you should never, ever doubt anything a child with an ear infection says about how much discomfort he or she is in. I've broken my foot playing basketball and what I felt in my ear blew that pain away!
The health care team put me on an IV drip to restore fluids and began a course of antibiotics. They also let me sleep, a very good thing. I was rather amused when the discharge nurse began to talk with me about the situation in the Middle East.
So, is there a moral to any of this? Just that we should never, ever take the availability of quality health care for granted. In many other parts of the world, an ear infection is allowed to play itself out. One night of a sharp pain in my ear was bad enough. Enduring that for days? No thanks!
For those not in the know, I found myself with an awful pain in my ear and a temp north of 105 degrees yesterday morning. That last bit of information resulted in an instruction by the physician on duty to head over to the Emergency Department, which we did. The docs declared that I had an ear infection, and that it was in impressive one, too.
Now, I don't know about you, but my experience with ear infections has usually involved very small children. And, indeed, it is very small children who most commonly suffer from said malady. However, I learned two things yesterday: adults can get ear infections and you should never, ever doubt anything a child with an ear infection says about how much discomfort he or she is in. I've broken my foot playing basketball and what I felt in my ear blew that pain away!
The health care team put me on an IV drip to restore fluids and began a course of antibiotics. They also let me sleep, a very good thing. I was rather amused when the discharge nurse began to talk with me about the situation in the Middle East.
So, is there a moral to any of this? Just that we should never, ever take the availability of quality health care for granted. In many other parts of the world, an ear infection is allowed to play itself out. One night of a sharp pain in my ear was bad enough. Enduring that for days? No thanks!
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