Back Story: Staying connected, medically speaking

This is going to sound tres cliche, but I'm going to tell it anyway. Oh that younger generation...

Our daughter went into labor late Saturday afternoon, catching us all by surprise, as we didn't expect that for another four weeks. So great-grandma, who was to fly in from Malaysia in time for the blessed event, will now arrive a few days late. And I, who was to have minor surgery this morning, ended up dog sitting while Amy ran off to the Soin Medical Center in Beavercreek with the paternal grandparents. So, while we were hoping to rid ourselves of a dog for my hospital trip this morning, we actually ended up caring for an extra dog. But, not having anything to do with technology, that's neither here nor there, and only serves to explain why I was not in the waiting room with everyone else to greet our latest family member.

When the grandparents arrived at the hospital, the expectant parents had already gone into the labor room. There can be no lack of information in the information age. Radio waves are whizzing all around us and we can expect them to fill that void. Amy whipped out her cell phone and sent a text message to Chris.

"What's happening?"

"We're near."

"How near?"

"Very near."

And so forth...

I'm surprised they didn't go to video.

At home, I went on Facebook to kill some time and there was a message from the new mom in the labor room, "I just spit out a baby boy!"

There were already 30 comments, one of which said, "I didn't know you were pregnant."

Of course, the texts were now flying into my own phone, fast and furious.

I posted something on my timeline and emailed my son and daughter and sisters. They immediately asked for photos...

The next morning, Sunday, when I went to the hospital to see the new baby for the first time, I brought my Android tablet. There is free wi-fi in every room at Soin. I took a couple pictures and posted one to Facebook and emailed a couple to family. There was a woman there with a big, fat Nikon. She would post her photos to a special webpage where the parents could pick out the ones they would like to purchase.

Soin was like a ghost town. There were only two patients on the maternity ward. I saw but one nurse, no doctors, no visitors. The parking lot was empty, the lobby was an echo chamber for the two teenage volunteers at the reception desk. I chalk that up to it's being brand new.

***

Fast forward to this morning, Monday. I get up at 5:30 to be at Greene Memorial by 6:00. I have Amy drop me and return home to take care of the dogs. Every admissions clerk and nurse is connected to the Kettering Health Network's servers. Everything I tell them is recorded somewhere in the cloud. They have access to all the information from the time I was treated for a urinary tract infection in 2011 and Bell's Palsy in 2012. They have the results of every blood pressure test, blood sugar test, CT-Scan, EKG, you name it, and now they are inputting all the new data.

They knock me out with something in an IV and when I come to, I feel just fine. The operation seems to have gone well. The surgeon leaves me with some instructions and I am doing an exit interview with a friendly nurse. I tell her about my visit to Soin. It turns out that the other woman on the maternity ward, Saturday, was her niece.

She asks me if I would like to be able to access my medical history online.

"Sure," I say. "Why not?"

I figure the NSA, IRS, United Health Care, Snowden, Manning, Putin, and Al Quaida probably are, so why not me, too.

I come home, register on the site and open my file. Then I open another tab and go to my Blogger account.

Welcome to the modern world, my new little grandson. I can't even begin to imagine what your life will be like when you are my age.

-vh

Rocky & Pee Wee: The tribe has spoken

Two weeks to script submission deadline

People keep telling me they're working on something for the Yellow Springs 10-Minute Play Festival. I know it's only human nature to let these things go until the last minute, but here's one last reminder: Sunday, September 1, 2013 is the deadline. Click here for submission guidelines.

Talkin' Mothman

Whenever I find myself in a situation where I feel I have to carry the conversation with folks I have just met, I bring up the Mothman. A few months ago, we dropped in on an in-law who was recovering from radiation and chemo treatments. He had other relatives visiting as well, including his 90-something mother. They are from south of here and are accustomed to driving through Point Pleasant - even used the Silver Bridge back in the old days. So, as we began to run out of things to talk about, I brought up the whole deal about The Mothman Prophecies (both book & movie). They, of course, were aware that the bridge had gone down long ago, but knew nothing of the craziness that attended its collapse. So they were fascinated by my ramblings.

This weekend, at a baby shower for my stepdaughter, I ran into the old lady, again. She couldn't wait to tell me that, upon my recommendation, she had read the book and enjoyed it.

"I didn't know there were such strange goings-on, so close to home," she said with a glint in her eye. "That's the kind of book that when you're done with it, you put it down and pick it up a few months later and read it all over again."

Well, I don't know about that... But, I do know, that once I get started on the Mothman, I rarely stop until I have covered all the theories about what happened in Point Pleasant, West Virginia back in the mid-60s, including my own. I guess my enthusiasm overflowed its banks on that occasion, more than I had intended. All I had wanted to do was divert attention from talk about cancer to something I could get into with all the hyperbole I am accustomed to injecting into my favorite subject.

Hey, why let facts get in the way of a good story... I suspect that John Keel, paranormal researcher and author of The Mothman Prophecies, also subscribed to that philosophy.

Your faithful blogger (L) with Carol Allin, Walter Rhodes and Barbara Forster at the Mothman monument, Point Pleasant, WV.

Taking the Beavers to Task

Local product Scott Keyes, who is making a name for himself as a political blogger, socked it to Beavercreek this week for their veiled attempts to block public transit from Dayton to Fairfield Commons and a couple other locations in the Creek.

Think Progress: Ohio Bus Discrimination

Related

Community Band Concert, Tonight

"A Lincoln Portrait," featuring Rev. Darryl Weston will be the highlight of the Yellow Springs Community Band Concert to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. The concert will be performed outdoors at the Mills Lawn School at 7 p.m. Bring a lawn chair. In case of rain, the event will be moved into the gym at the school.

James Johnston will conduct. This will be the band's last concert until the fall season.

Afternoon of the Hawk

A large Cooper's hawk

lifts off from a branch

in my neighbor's tree,

beating across

the small patch of sky

between one Home, Inc. house

and another.

Our chickens are oblivious,

safe under their netting.

I mention it to the dog.

She stares down from the deck

to the backyard below,

looking for a groundhog.

“Nothing there,” she says

with her eyes.

We stand guard for awhile,

knowing our demons

are sure to return.

-vh

Submission deadline approaching...

Reminder from the Yellow Springs 10-Minute Play Festival:

There is exactly one month left until the deadline for script submissions to the YS 10-Minute Play Festival. Click here for guidelines and other information.