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On 7 Aug 2003 at 23:04, janet paterson wrote: my dear murray my heart and lungs go out to you ... i am glad that this discovery seems to be early in the game when i was 25 i was told i had the 'beginnings' of uterine cancer but it was caught in time ... my god-daughter's brother aka my god-nephew? chris in victoria had cancer in a kidney and then spots in his lungs starting when he was just under 4 years old he came through it all and is now raising heck in high school at age 14 ... whatever happens grace has you in her hands safe and sound this is just another lesson (by now you must have at least a couple of Phd's!) my thoughts and prayers are with you and brenda each and every minute guaranteed much love janet ps this cyber family has been through its ups and downs but that's what families do and this is what they are for cyb-bro pps whenever you have a spare minute i think you should do some writing you have the gift share it janet paterson * * * Hi jp and Hello to All, jp, I'm not a "writer" of any substance, or of any quantity, or of any particular value. My "writing" is usually off-the-cuff, spontaneous, often less then well thought out, verbiage. Sometimes I surprise myself, but not enough to break out of my sporadic habit. Speaking of sporadic, years ago, my then family dr. once asked me why I didn't visit my other regular dr. Surprised, I said "I don't have any other dr. ... you're my regular guy." He replied "If I'm your dr. then why is it I have to look for your file in the archives when you come to see me"? Now I have a family dr.; a neurologist; a movement disorder "team"; and a new lung disorders "team". Same thing with hospitals... While I am familiar with hospitals, (I've worked on the elevators in most major hospitals in BC and Alberta) this is the first time since 1949 or '50 that I spent any signifigant time in one as an impatient "patient". Now it seems I might have to get familiar with more hospital time and procedures than I've ever imagined. I've noticed a bit of a change. In 1950 the nurses all wore crisply starched white uniform dresses complete with white "caps" ala Cherry Ames (a series of hard cover books my sister once cherished) and the dr wore a three piece suit starched white shirt, and tie. Now the nurses uniforms are generally wash 'n wear pants and blouses, no caps, no rigid standard per se, and the drs. appear to have abandoned their suit jackets, white shirts, and ties for a more relaxed, much less formal, yet still semi-professional, "look". There are other "changes"... I shared a small stuffy room in 1950, I was dressed in a hospital gown, confined to bed for 8 days (communal washroom down the hall, but I was not allowed to go for fear of infection transfer), attended by a nurse for all personal hygiene (bathed in bed, and bed pans) attended by a nurse each shift to manually monitor and chart my vital signs (Yep! shake down the mercury, take my temperature, skilled fingertips and wristwatch to take my pulse, light in my eye to check pupil dilation) and attended by a nurse to receive 4 doses of infection fightin' penicillin/day administered in the butt cheek... (Yep! 32 shots in 8 days! confined to bed! And that was for a ruptured ear drum)... When I was mercifully discharged, I couldn't walk unassisted and I could barely sit... Oh... and visiting hours were 2:00PM to 4:00PM and 6:00PM to 8:00PM every day. (If ya over-stayed I'm sure the visitor police would have been on ya) The hospital food was the dreaded variety that you hear of in old wives tales, folklore, etc. This time, I was in a very large air conditioned private room complete with private bath, private telephone, fully dressed (for the most part) in my own clothes, and allowed visitors 24/7 (although they did suggest the preferred times were 8:00AM to 10:00PM and they did cut off incoming phone calls from 10:00PM to 8:00AM.) I was free to walk about, come and go, get my own newspaper from the gift shop 12 floors down, etc. I was allowed to "self-medicate" my Parkinson's meds. I had an IV tap in my arm so that I could receive any injectable meds without any further action. (BTW Carole... if you're listenin'... I noticed EVERY room has a "sharps-disposal" permanently wall mounted just inside the entry doorway.) They monitored my vital signs twice/day with a roll in machine that sensed my % oxygenation, pulse rate, and breaths/minute with a finger clip, automatically inflated, slowly deflated, and then recorded my blood pressure levels with a nurse applied "cuff", and took my temperature electronically with a probe the attending nurse placed under my tongue. Very modern, high tech, impressive (to me anyway) and the information is displayed on the machine readouts and is thus readily available to the patient without any "asking" required. And... they brought around forms that you could select your meals by circling your choices. Fresh fruit was readily available. My short hospital stay was about as pleasant as you could wish. Thank you VGH drs. and staff. So you see, jp... I'm not much of a writer... but I am prone to run-off-at-the-mouth.. cheers ...... murray Murray Charters <[log in to unmask]> http://www.geocities.com/murraycharters/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn