She's asleep! Taking buffista advice and napping now.

I 'm doing well in recovering from my operation. But it is a damn good thing I'm assertive. They tried to send me home without adequate training in changing my catheter bag, and it took major fighting and stubborness to get it. First there was an attempt to tell me I could "practice at home". Then when I insisted I needed to know how to do it before I could "practice" an attempt to threaten me with keeping me as in-patient since I was "too disabled to change the bag myself". But I kept insisting that I could indeed take change the bag myself if someone would simply be patient enough to show me at my pace rather than at the pace your average bear can learn this - people without my difficulties in seeing and without various neurological disabilities that slow my mastery of the physical world. Fortunately, a second nurse stepped up and said he had .lots of patience, which indeed he did. 20 minutes of training rather than five and I was fine. I posted at greater length about this on facebook, but that is the short version for those who can't access face book. The longer post is here [link] . It is public so you can access it without friending or following me if that is your choice. Incidentally most patience who are given instructions for self-care upon discharge do not understand those instructions - about 80%. [link] And no, it is not just language or literacy difficulties. That statistic stands among well educated English speaking professionals in the USA.

Here is a less formal article on the mismanagement of discharge instructions in the USA medical systems. [link]

I'm glad the second nurse was wiling to work with you until things were working properly, Typo Boy. And I'm not surprised a lot of people don't understand the self care instructions they get, although the 80% number is pretty eye opening. I wonder how much they'd cut down on re-admissions if communicating things better was prioritized.

Grateful that you got a good nurse to do the training. May your recovery be rapid.

That does seem harsh. Because it's not like it won't affect your health if you screw up, so being all "Good Luck with that!" doesn't seem like good practice.(and not only because, if you get sick from doing it wrong, the doctor would totally shake his finger at you.) You know what I would like? Never having to discuss the disability Name Thing ever again. (our movement hasn't caught on because even more than Buffistas, we have three things we ever talk about and, unlike Buffistas, they are all boring.)

Never having to discuss the disability Name Thing ever again.

Do you mean like person-first language?

Well, this is a new one for me -- a student forgot to do her homework because someone fired a gun near her house and she had to call the police.

Did she bring a copy of the police report?

It'll be delivered too late for Talk Like a Pirate Day, but I'm still tempted...

[link]