Hospital Routines

Its an yearly ritual to have my mother admitted into a hospital for some complaint or the other for a few days and then we come back home. She is 84 now.

Each time I find a disturbing trend in the name of routine check up of patients by the nurses.

The patient is checked for BP and temperature. Every 3 to 4 hours is understandable. But checking every hour means disturbing the patient and the attendant. I can understand if the patient were admitted in the ICU (intensive care unit) for some emergency and needs to be monitored every hour.

Most often, the patient falls asleep nicely and she or he is woken up from deep sleep to record the BP and temperature every hour. I find this funny. Maybe the hospitals want to justify their charges, so this is done very regularly and promptly, besides so many tests whether they are useful for diognizing the problem or not. Scans, MRIs, blood tests, X-rays all fall under this category. Tests have become a racket and forms the major portion of any hospital bill.

The doctors' visits are far and few in-between and even if he does visit, it is not more than 5 minutes he spends with each patient. Does not even bother to listen to what the patient wants to convey. Doctors are impatient and try to walk towards the next patient as if in some great hurry.

Last year I felt it was a sheer torture to keep waking my mother up every hour for this. She said she wanted to go home and sleep undisturbed and get some real rest. In 24 hours there were 24 jottings made. Its terrible at nights to disturb a patient who is resting well with all medicines taken for the night.

We know the body rests during sleep to heal itself in many ways. We need that rest. We need no one to disturb us from a good night's sleep even if one is admitted into a hospital for treatment.

Mahalakshmi.

Deep Sleep

Dear Readers,

Sleep. Good sleep. Deep sleep. All are magic words for many of us. Most of us find good sleep quite elusive.

Why do we need to sleep well?
How many hours are mandatory for our well-being?

We need to sleep well to repair our body. We need to rest them for some hours to heal or repair cells or tissues. We feel so fresh and so good after a good sleep session. It is a blessing to be able to fall asleep as soon as we hit the pillow.

How many hours of sleep is good for us?
Some are strict about going to bed at a particular time every single day and getting up at a certain time. This discipline is good for everyone. The body gets rested and refreshed for a set number of hours and sleep comes easily out of sheer habit.
For the more adventurous types the body is subjected to surprises all the time. The body begs for some rest and we don't give it proper heed. When the engine breaks down we have to spend more time in bed (falling sick) as a result.

Deep sleep is another form of meditation? Your mind is rested and so is your body? Is the mind really rested? With so many dreams flitting across like cinema reels! Dreams. Some we remember long after we are awake and some don't register at all! this is another subject which needs more time to think and write!!

At times I do wonder if I will ever get up the next morning or conk off in sleep itself :) !! It is God's grace that we live to see yet another day.

Let us be good human beings, give our body a good rest every night, do a good deed for the day in return for living to see yet another sunrise!

Am reminded of Scarlett O'Hara's famous last words, "Tomorrow is another day." from 'Gone With The Wind'.

Hope. Hope to get some rest and hope to see yet another tomorrow.

Cheers and good night.

Mahalakshmi