I arrived at the hospital this morning in registration and saw a bunch of people that I know. One of them tried to cut in front of me with a larger number, but they say back down and patiently waited. We got to the part about preferred accommodations and she mentioned that if I did not have coverage that I would have to pay. I am not sure if I have coverage or not, but I would pay for a private room. I would rather be comfortable in my own room as opposed to sharing a room. I can have many more visitors if I am by myself compared to with other people. I do not remember much from last time I was here for an extended stay, but I do remember waking up several times and seeing Mel. I remember trying to stay up and chat with her and her telling me to rest. It seems a bit odd to me to try and rest when someone is visiting. It was always comforting waking up in the room and seeing a familiar face. That does not mean that I want someone there all of the time watching me sleep though. I am not sure how strict they will be with visits this time. This weekend I need to start planning and putting together my overnight bag of what I want during my hospital stay. I should contact my friends in IT and make sure that they properly set up my room so I can work. There is a sign on the wall that indicates that wait times may be up to 4 hours if you need to see an Anesthesiologist. It seems a bit insane to me that these are scheduled patient visits and you may end up waiting for 4 hours. I do not know if I understand how things are scheduled like this. There seems to be a finite number of patients and Anesthesiologists that you can see in a certain timeframe. If each doctor can see 3 or 4 patients and you have 2 seeing patients, could you not figure out what time it takes to have patients come in. Seems quite inefficient as it seems that the time of the doctors is prioritized over patients. I guess the signs warn people, but you just increase anxiety for some people by having them wait anxiously in a packed room. It gives the impression that every thing is over capacity. It is clear that the health system is broken. There are at least 9 people ahead of me since I have arrived.
When we first started capturing preferred accommodations forms it was quite the fight. Initially there was a clerk that would go to patient rooms after the fact to get them to sign their room preferences. You can only bill if people agree so the hospital was losing out on money. My first project was revising this process and we opted to capture the information when the patient’s registered. People do not always know their coverage and I for a fact did not know mine even though I tried to look it up. Regardless I made my choice. When we first started it I would go collect the forms every morning at 5:30am. I would start work at 6am every day, so I would start a bit earlier and go collect these forms. The first week the weekend rolled around and I told them that I would be there bright and early to collect them. No one believed that I would actually come in on Saturday to collect them. I showed up and they were surprised as they did not expect that. I repeated that I would be back on Sunday. You think at this point that they would know I would be back. When I showed up nothing was ready. They had grown accustomed to people saying things but when things are difficult they would not come through. I repeated this for months and they eventually caught on that I would follow through with what I said. It helped to build confidence in the team when I said I would do something and carry through. When they brought up an issue and said I would look into it, they trusted that I would. It made work much easier in the future.
When I was at Vale there was something similar where I was told to go work on a project remotely to help them resolve an issue that they were having. I had to teach them and lead the project. I told them that I would be back in a month to check up on things and when i actually did they were surprised. Leadership did not always follow through as they for busy and they were not always prioritized. Something so small like keeping your word can have such a big impact. I know that if someone repeatedly lets me down then I will stop leaning on them. I am lucky that everyone in my circle will always have my back. Yesterday I had lunch with Mel and some friends and I had mentioned that if I had to get someone to drive Xavier to NOSSA the previous weeks that I would not have struggled with it at all. My friend confirmed that at lunch no questions asked.
Xavier had an exhibition game yesterday and as per what they have done lately they play Xavier in the second half as it is more difficult coming in cold. He let 2 goals in a 2 to 1 loss and I could see his disappointment when we drove home and chatted with Mel. She thinks he needs to stop being so Asian. The first goal was on a 2 on 1 where they shot it over his glove. The second goal was a 5 on 3 powerplay where he made the initial save and they scored on a rebound. I think Mel gets upset that he wants to be perfect and he refuses to blame the situation for not stopping the shots. His teammates tell him that he played well and it is not his fault but it annoys him because in his head he should have had it. When I was talking with him after he knew what he had to adjust. His logic for the rebound was not wrong. There were two kids by themselves in the top of the slot just outside the crease and one on the side of the net. Since we were down 2, he tried to keep the rebound in tighter so he could cover it, but when it bounced off his pad the kid had the puck uncontested and shot in the rebound. We discussed that perhaps he should have tried to kick it out further in order to give him more recovery as the likelihood of maintaining control would be difficult. His goalie partner told him that he played well which angers him even more as in his head he should have had it. This is a double edged sword. It will push him further to excel and succeed in life but he has to balance it with relying on his team to help him out. He has to accept that it is ok if they make a mistake and he can not bail them out. They will not blame him. He puts a lot of pressure on himself and gets disappointed when he can not win it on his own.
I have 4 days now to prep for surgery and make sure that I have a plan in place. I like to have contingency plans in place to prepare for what may come. I just need my headphones, some extra battery packs and my overnight pack. With that I should be good to go. If you want to visit when I am in the hospital you can purchase an admission ticket from Mel.
Q
P.S. I have been here for 2 hours and still not in.