Right on time
Confession of a man guided by time
I confess to being time conscious.
That’s what my family did. We were early far more often than we were ever late.
We arrived at family gatherings early.
We arrived at church early.
We arrived at school early.
I arrived at work early because I’m a morning person.
However, it cemented during my 20-plus years in journalism.
Journalists set appointments with sources, and you show up on time or you intrude on your source’s time. Additionally, meetings on a beat have specific times, and barring circumstances, you get there on time.
Between my upbringing and my journalism career, it’s like an alarm that goes off inside me.
It reared its ugly head again when my wife was away from home for a few days. She’s a home health aide and she traveled with the folks for whom she works (they will remain anonymous).
The plan was a four-day trip to Georgia (700 miles from Western New York) between March 28 and 31, traveling back April 1. I arrived home from work March 31 with my son greeting me that it could be April 3 or 4 before they’re home because one of the two people she traveled with landed in a Georgia Emergency Department.
It was a cruel April Fool’s joke.
From Monday evening to Thursday my wife and I talked daily and we texted frequently. My focus was: what are the doctors saying about who landed in the hospital? Are they giving you any indication about a discharge?
This came from experience.
In April 2005, my Mother landed at University Hospital in Cleveland with sepsis. My older brother did not live in Northeast Ohio. Everything fell on me.
I learned to ask questions–be persistent, but not obnoxious. There were several things related to her health care that were reserved for others. I got it fast.
This isn’t an accusation that doctors freelance. It’s more of an encouragement for the family of the ill or injured to demand communication. Otherwise, you get told the bare minimum–at least that’s my experience.
It wasn’t my family, so it wasn’t my responsibility.
In my communication with my wife, I wanted to know what the doctors told the family because that dictated when they could leave Georgia and get back to Western New York.
I also had experience with hospitals in Ohio and South Carolina.
In May 2001, I had my left kidney removed at the Cleveland Clinic because it wasn’t functioning properly. That didn’t fix another gastrointestinal issue that occurred. I had 3 feet of my small intestine removed in July 2001 at LakeWest Hospital in Willoughby, Ohio. This hospital stay was long. I had superb medical care, but far too often American medicine moves with slightly more speed than how the government acts.
Meanwhile, in August 2013, I developed a blood clot in my left leg, leading to diagnosis of an autoimmune condition. That was a long hospital stay attempting to control multiple internal factors.
I share all of that health information to underscore that I have vast experience with hospitals, except post-covid. I have an understanding of how health care functions. There are nuances between hospitals. Generally speaking, if you don’t get discharged on a Friday, you are waiting until Monday.
Hospitals discharge people on Saturdays and Sundays, but my experience reveals those are the exceptions, not the rule.
We arrived on the evening of Thursday, April 3, with no word of what doctors were thinking with the person who landed in a Georgia Emergency Department. My confidence waned.
I also was passive aggressive with comments about what was unfolding. I was concerned this was headed to April 7 or 8. And my wife’s birthday was April 7.
By Friday morning, the Holy Spirit convicted me of my selfishness and insisting things be done on my time when someone was dealing with a health issue. It wasn’t the first time the Holy Spirit grabbed my attention, nor will it be the last.
Then something odd happened.
I received a text message from my wife Friday afternoon stating doctors were discharging the person on Friday. It was an Easter miracle!
They made the trip on Sunday, April 6, complete with my wife being an exhausted driver and multiple people praying for her alertness and awareness, until they arrived 13 hours later.
My wife was relieved.
She was right on time.
