15 Minutes a Day

Posts Tagged ‘Healthcare’

I remember during my Bachelors program, sitting in my academic advisor’s office looking at all of the books on her shelf and thinking to myself, “How can anyone want to read so many boring looking books?” This week I was reading books like Empowered: Unleash your employees, energize your customers, transform your business, The Delphi technique in nursing and health research, and a U.S. government-issued report entitled Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 21st century. What was even more strange was I found myself fascinated by their contents! Back then I really wanted to pursue a doctoral degree, but didn’t think I’d ever be allowed to do so. Now that I’m here, I have to chuckle at that young woman who couldn’t imagine spending hours reading boring, professor-type books, much less enjoying doing so!

I spent much of the week getting to know more about the Delphi Method that I am now planning to use. I have learned about its strengths and limitations, but no matter how much I learn about it, the one phrase that keeps going through my head is “This sounds like FUN!” I can’t wait to get started on the recruitment process. However, first I need to get through the proposal approval process. One step at a time…

References:

Bernoff, J. & Schadler, T. (2010). Empowered: Unleash your employees, energize your customers, transform your business. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Keeney, S., Hasson, F. & McKenna, H. (2011). The Delphi technique in nursing and health research. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 21st century. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Today started out tough and stayed that way. I woke up feeling dizzy and continued having frequent dizzy spells throughout the morning. By 10:00 a.m. I was starting to worry that something was wrong so I called and made an appointment with a Physician’s Assistant in my PCP’s office.

My PA wasn’t certain that the dizziness was caused as an after effect of the concussion, but she couldn’t rule it out either. The brain is a tricky organ that is not always easily decipherable. To deal with the dizzy spells she prescribed meclizine. We’ll see how it works.

On the bright side, my cold seems to be clearing up. My husband’s cold seems to be on the mend as well. I’m trying to look on the bright side of things. It can be hard some days, but I keep trying. Mark is wonderful and makes sure I’m not overdoing it. I’ve also been getting lots of calls from friends and family who are checking up on me. I’m going to get to spend some time with family over the 24th-26th. That will be fun. I haven’t seen some of my family in more than a year.

Image Credit: This photo was retrieved on December 22, 2009 from the Health section of Mail Online using Google Images.

The after-effects of my “accident” 1.5 weeks ago (I’m not sure what else to call it) are starting to ease. I have a bruise that’s about 2″ in diameter on the back of my head, but it’s no longer a lump. It still hurts, but it’s starting to itch which means it’s healing. My energy levels are also starting to rise. I went for a walk yesterday and a longer walk today. I needed a nap after each walk, but they’re getting shorter and less frequent as well.

The dizzy spells are what I find the most disconcerting. They happen rather suddenly and last for varying lengths of time – from a few seconds to nearly a minute – and have varying levels of severity. My neurologist says it may take anywhere from six weeks to a year before I start feeling completely normal again. I’m determined that it take less time rather than more!

More good news! My cold is starting to ease up as well. Bad news… Mark has gotten my cold. I’m hoping that because he’s been obsessive about taking Vitamin C forever, he won’t get hit as hard by this cold as I was.  Sorry Honey!

Image Credit: The image used in this post was retrieved on December 20, 2009 from http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/JapanProj/FLClipart/Medical.html using Google Images.

My head is starting to clear after my concussion last week. My husband, Mom and Grandma all say I sound clearer (I guess I was slurring my words last week) and Mark (my hubby) says my eyes look clearer. I find this amazing considering how congested I’ve become in the last couple of days. As if a concussion & seizure wasn’t bad enough, life hands me a cold to deal with too!

I went to visit my neurologist on Monday & he ordered me to be off work until January 4, 2010. As I mentioned in my earlier post, my boss has been great about this. However, I now have a TON of paperwork to fill out and submit. Along with the stuff I can fill out for myself, there is also paperwork my neurologist has to fill out too. Too bad I didn’t have this with me on Monday. Oh well…

Image Credit: Photo found on Montgomery County, PA using Google Images.

I re-launched this site last Tuesday with the intent of making daily updates when life threw me a curve ball. The very next evening I was a suddenly chauffered (aka one ambulance ride later) guest of the Sutter Roseville Medical Center Emergency Department after having a grand mal seizure at a Wal Mart. I left the ER that evening with a goose egg on the back of my head, a concussion, and admonishments not to drive until checked out by a neurologist.  Since then I’ve been dealing with headaches, dizzy spells and sleeping a LOT.

Today was my appointment with my neurologist. He’s suspended my drivers’ license for six months (because of the grand mal seizure – it’s a state law that I actually find reasonable if hugely inconvenient) and put me on anti-seizure meds for the first time in 15 years. Ah well… mass transit is currently free for me and better for the environment. Right?

The bottom line is that I’m fine. Nobody else was hurt in my little healthcare crisis and an unknown good Samaritan was able to contact my husband (using my own cell phone) and tell him what was happening (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!).

The other things that I’m grateful for are my WONDERFUL and supportive husband, Mark who has been nothing but positive all week; my very very good and comprehensive health insurance provided to me by my employer – Sutter Health; and last, but certainly not least – my incredibly understanding boss, Kathy Lummen, who has also been amazing over the past week (including trying to contact Mark on the night of the incident when the good Samaritan called her)! I’m a very lucky woman to have such wonderfulness in my life!!!

P.S. On top of everything above… I woke up congested this morning! I’m more irritated by the stuffy nose than by everything else!