One Pharmacist’s View
Routine day at the VA
Funny thing, this thing called life. Forrest Gump said that life is like a box of chocolates. You don’t know what you’re going to get ‘till you pull one out and try it. That’s the way I try to plan my life as I drift in and out of escapades.
Well, most of you know I get all my medical needs taken care of up at the VA in Oklahoma City. Thus, I wasn’t surprised when I recently had a phone call from one of their caregivers telling me I needed to be in something called cardiac rehab. “Thursday morning “ she said. So last Thursday Pat and I piled into the family car and headed toward the VA.
However, Oklahoma City television weather was intruding on our plans. By Thursday morning those fellows were in high gear. A winter storm was on its way. Not just any old storm, mind you, but a winter snowstorm the likes of which hadn’t been seen in these parts for years. We would be pelted with about 8” of snow, strong north winds accompanied by freezing drizzle, rain and power outages. Highways would just be awful and we were all supposed to make sure we had food in our pantry, generators on hand and gas in our tanks.
The result of all this? Governor Mary Fallen declared a state of emergency which resulted in countless cancellations of events, school closings and rescheduling of sporting events. Some gas stations were low on fuel by Thursday and Erick was nearly out of bread and milk. And of course I’ve still got this appointment in Oklahoma City with the VA. Luckily the doomsday weather wasn’t supposed to happen until Friday. Plenty of time for me to get my appointment done. So away we went.
And soon we had found my jolly nurse in charge of the day’s events. I noticed a TV out of the corner of my eye that said the weather event was going to be a little late. “This monster storm is slowing down which means that it will go through Oklahoma slower which in turn means much more snow.” The weather man looked into the lens of the camera and warned us again of how dangerous this storm was going to be. Well, I was convinced and studied the door and wondered if we could cancel this rehab.
“Ya know,” my nurse person said with the same happy tone she would use if she had just found a lost $100 bill in her purse, “you had better let me check your blood pressure.” I reminded myself that the important thing to do today was get on home. Beat the storm. But she had my shirt and she had ushered me into another room. A room with an EKG which was attached to my chest via about 100 wires and ice-cold pads. Another girl had appeared in my cubicle (which turns out to be in the ER) and this little girl has a tag pronouncing her as a MD belonging to cardiology.
A burly aide meanwhile, (probably on loan from a mental institution) had started digging into my arm and had a tube dangling out of my arm for IVs and blood pulling. I didn’t notice who or when these insidious invaders had attached a big plastic wristband on my other arm. “What’s this for” I asked. “We put them on all who are admitted to the hospital,” she said. Oh me I thought as my eyes watched the clock tick the day away. I listened to the TV weather with one ear and my attending medical people with the other. Hours passed. Consultations were held in which several avenues of treatment were mused about. The weatherman spoke whenever he could about the coming national disaster--the weather.
Finally the cardiology person said that I need some more work on my heart but it could wait till after Christmas. And that, my friends is how I managed to get home so I could deal and participate in what promised to be this killer winter storm. On the cold dark highway coming home we learned all that had been cancelled. Darn!
Hope all of you have a good weekend and can go to church Sunday.
Wayne Bullard, DPh