Weather I’m Right, or Weather I’m Wrong

Renee’s recovery seems to be as fickle as the weather. The surgeon said there would be up and down days but you can never be sure if it is just a down day or something worth calling the doctor over. The abdominal cramps and shooting pains have not subsided. One of her co-workers said she looks green. At least she’s got some color!

I made Renee call the doctor last week. The big question, which doctor? She got through to the gastroenterologist first but tomorrow is the first available appointment. Can this wait until Monday?

She has been experiencing chills and this morning was hit with what appears to be a return of her recurring eye infection. Her eye doctor has said relates to a weak immune system, another signal of something bigger going on. I had brought up the possibility of adhesions previously and a friend in the medical profession also brought it up yesterday. That knot that I told you about last week is a form of adhesion that poked its way through to the surface.

Adhesions are nothing but internal scar tissue. Some people are more susceptible to them than others. Following Renee’s kidney removal five years ago she experienced a life threatening bout when the scarring strangled her colon. About a month after the surgery, I brought Renee to the emergency room for severe abdominal cramping. She was standing on her head from the pain and I am not exaggerating. It was a Saturday morning. They ran a bunch of tests which lasted until nightfall. They sent me home and said the results would not be ready until morning. A little after midnight, a got a call that they were rushing Renee to surgery, NOW! I got to the hospital just as the on-call surgeon was having her final pep talk with Renee. The surgeon pulled me aside, looked me square in the eye and said, she’s got maybe 12 hours to live if we don’t operate. So, what are doing chatting with me? Get to work doc! Post-op, the surgeon made sure she hammered this little tidbit about twelve hours home. It was a not so subtle reminder not to ignore the things your body is telling you.

What I didn’t hammer home to the surgeon was that the ER doctor was ready to release Renee with some alka-seltzer or similar placebo like treatment. It was our family doctor who told them to run additional tests and that Renee isn’t one of those patients who just runs to the hospital for attention. Don’t get sick on the weekends folks.

What have we learned here kids? Healthcare is a lot like predicting the weather. Some are better at it than others and no one is so good that they can tell you absolutely what is going to happen. But if the signs are all there that a hurricane is coming, batten down the hatches! Here is my tribute to that profession that is more fickle than the weather itself. These people missed predicting two, not one but two, “storms of the century” this year alone.

Weatherman
By Bob Masterson

Thank God its Friday cause man, I just had a killer week
Whatever could go wrong just did and the job front’s looking bleak
To top it off that green screen clicking, TV talking head
Told me it’d be sunny
And now I’m soaking wet.

Never trust a weatherman or anything they say
I want that job where I can be wrong everyday
Sorry boss but Mother Nature just got in the way
Now my baby needs a new pair of boots
Thanks for that raise in pay

God Bless the soul
Who could land that role
And continue on un-phased
When they’re standing in
Two feet of snow,
Without predicting
One damn flake

I’ll get up Monday morning
Face the music at my workplace
Knowing I can’t blame the weather
For the screw-ups that I make
My boss’s needs change with the breeze
But he doesn’t see it that way
I always get hit with that high pressure system
When told a cold front’s on the way

So I’m riding out the storm
Blind to the next blast
And I don’t need a weatherman
To tell me
This too shall pass.


Any predictions on what's happening in Renee's gut? You've probably got as good a chance at diagnosing it as the weatherman has predicting the next storm of the century. Go ahead, give it a shot.