Behind the Scenes View of Cabinet Peaks Medical Center

Today I decided to take a walk to the new hospital in our town to take a tour. St John's Lutheran Hospital is getting replaced by the new hospital, Cabinet Peaks Medical Center, on January 30, 2014. Because everyone is curious, they were giving tours today.

OOPS! Camera Died.
I didn't take my camera because the batteries died. Sorry about that, but I will try to get a few pictures for you all when I buy more batteries. I did find this picture on the St. John's Lutheran Hospital's website. I don't see a source for the picture though...

Source: sjlh.com history page
Doesn't that look nice!?

Cabinet Peaks Downstairs
We started out in the front lobby area in front of the Walk-in Clinic which will replace prompt care. It's for non-emergency care in case you can't get in to see the doctor that day.  They told us that the hospital was set up with healing in mind. Not sure what that meant, but okay! Cool! Sounds positive!

Then we went around the bottom floor past the cafeteria which will be open to the public. So, if you want to stop by the hospital cafeteria for lunch, you can! I won't, because of my allergies, but they said they have a new menu too. 

That's nice... I wasn't aware they had a menu at the old hospital. Actually, I wasn't aware they had a cafeteria either. Good to know! Hoping they have a lot of coffee there. I did see a coffee carafe section.

We saw the new lab area. That's where I was told that every area of the hospital has it's own waiting area. Cool. The old one has one for the ER and one for everyone else. That's all the waiting areas I know of. Then we headed to the ER staff area. Totally cool! Usually people won't see that area. That lead us out to the Trauma bays. It looks like there will be a lot more privacy with how the rooms are set up. That will be a nice change from St John's where there is little privacy when you are in the Trauma bay. 

We also got to walk through the "walk-in clinic" side and see the rooms there. They all look really nice. The nurses stations look more state of the art compared to St John's Lutheran Hospital. We saw the new helipad too. It's straight across from the emergency room entrance.

We got to see the MRI, x-ray, radiology areas too. They have a machine there were the doctors can see the x-ray right away. Nice. And then we went around to the other area... can't remember what it was though :)

We went upstairs on the new elevators. Those are nice. They work like an elevator is supposed to work. They aren't old and ancient and terrifying! The next part isn't in order... But these are the areas we viewed.

Cabinet Peaks Upstairs
Upstairs looks pretty nice. We got to see the new surgery area, the pre-op and post-op areas. No, I am not missing my oxford comma there. The pre-op and post-op areas are the same areas. No privacy really, except for curtains. The one we have now is pretty private. This one, I hope I never need surgery. That's not enough privacy for me. But it looks nice.

Appropriately placed next to the surgery area is the Chapel. No, I am not making a joke about SJLH poor quality care. I am just saying, if someone I loved was going into surgery, and it was bad, and I was a religious person... wouldn't it be nice to not have to walk across the building to get to a chapel? 

Or in my case, when my first son was dying (in a different hospital)... Down four floors, across the building, out the door, across the campus, into another building, up two floors, across the building and into the Chapel. Yes, having it right there is a nice touch. And it's close to patient rooms, ICU, Labor/Delivery, and other areas I would imagine you would want a Chapel. 

We also got to see the ICU. The rooms are nice and they look pretty private. They also have two isolation rooms. Just around the corner are the regular patient rooms, complete with a private shower/bathroom, a love-seat that turns into a bed, a flat screen TV, and a patient chair with a little table attached to the arm of the chair.

We saw the physical therapy department and a patient room that has a lift attached to the ceiling for patients that need to be lifted out of bed in a bariatric lift.

We saw the mammography center (I think that was downstairs) that has a private area for undressing so you don't have to walk down the hall in your hospital gown. I didn't know SJLH patients had to walk down the hall. I've never had to do that.

The Labor/Delivery/Recovery rooms look really nice. Two of them have a Jacuzzi tub in them. The nursery is rather small since they encourage Mom to keep their baby in the room with them. And there is a "mother's room" for women who need help with lactation. The views from those rooms are overlooking a field behind the hospital where deer gather often.

After that we headed down to the cafeteria where we could ask questions. I couldn't think of any except how are they with allergies? I've never been admitted to the hospital here so I didn't know how they handle multiple allergies. 

Apparently, if you have lots of allergies, they send the dietitian up to talk to you to find out what you CAN eat and try to accommodate your dietary needs. One guy made a joke of "Fly you to Kalispell?" Which I thought was funny, but I don't think the other guy did. Gave me a good chuckle though.

Overall- Nice.
I have to say, overall, the place looks really nice, well laid out, and much more inviting than St John's Lutheran Hospital. I just hope the care is better there. 

While I have heard a few stories from SJLH that leave a lot to be desired, I have noticed that their care there has improved a lot. Let's hope it keeps improving!  As of now, there is really only ONE emergency doctor I feel safe seeing. The other's have not impressed me much. 

But, I am still hopeful that they will give high quality care. I am waiting in eager anticipation! And at the same time, I am hoping I don't need to go to the Emergency Room... ever. 

I'll Be Juicing It Up This Week!

I started getting my teeth pulled in preparation for getting dentures or, hopefully, implants. There are some things I never really noticed until now. Like, my front teeth have always hurt. I didn't chew with them much before but I had back teeth to grind my food to my hearts content. With no back teeth to chew with, and an ora-antral fistula (Google that at your own risk) making eating a chore, I am really noticing the pain.

You see, I only have teeth on my left and on the bottom. So when I go to bite into something, I have to bite with my front teeth that are left, the ones that hurt. I also have a fistula (a hole going from my mouth to my sinus cavity) on the left top where my molar used to be. I can't bite down back there because it sends food up into my sinuses. I actually sneezed rice out my nose (It was totally awesome!) 

In fact, I was getting to the point where I hated eating because if it wasn't liquid, I was having serious issues with it. Anything that I had to chew made it feel like someone was taking a row of knives and ramming them into my lower jawline. Anything that was thicker than water would up into my sinus for me to sneeze out later, even yogurt! I could smell what I ate for hours afterward and my sinus was really starting to hurt.

But I have to eat! And I was seriously sick of drinking soup. Then I remembered I have a juicer. So I ran out and bought some fruit and vegetables.

We juiced most of the grapes too. Very good with green apple!

The first thing I juiced was straight up carrots. Nothing else. Just carrots, and the juice was glorious! I actually felt like I had some nutrition, because butter, chicken broth, and rice flour only goes far as far as nutrition goes.

I have been experimenting with some mixes and found a few recipes to try. So this week... I will be sharing my juicing love! AND comparing two juicers, mine and my friend's.

FINALLY, I feel awake enough to function again!

Question for you all! 

Don't worry about allergies when you answer this. 

What vegetable/ fruit, or combination of them, do you think would sound good as a juice? 

I actually juiced a pepper today! I will tell you about it tomorrow.

I bought Emu Oil for my Injured Back. Let the Experiment Begin!

I read a lot about the wonders of Emu Oil and was looking for some. The only one I found in Libby was so pricey that I don't care how much pain I am in... I can't afford that! I found a bottle of Emu Oil at Mountain Meadow Gifts just about a block and a half from my house. It's a half a fluid ounce for $8.99 which is still pricey. But it says to use 3 drops on the affected area. If it works, I will be back at work in no time (I hoping!) and then I can afford the pricey big bottle.

But, before I start the experiment, I wanted to document how I am doing right now without the emu oil so I can compare later with better clarity. I will do this by using the Pain Management worksheet I got in the mail for my pain specialist appointment that is on Wednesday. Here it goes...

Pain Level Right Now: 6.7 (I have a pain scale app I use)

Describe your pain: It's a burning pain that starts in my lower back and radiates around and down, all the way to the soles of my feet. It ends up turning into a stabbing sensation just in the back and has intermittent "shock" like sensations that start in the middle lower back and radiates outward to my sides (it's not daily). It's a quick shock feeling and then goes away. Every once in a while, I have this "crunchy" feeling in my lower back. It doesn't really hurt though it's just disconcerting and uncomfortable. Every once in a while I also have a "pop" feeling in my lower back (it's not daily either). Not sure what that is. It hurts for a few seconds and then subsides.

Pattern: The pain is constant. I only one or two pain free days since June 26 (and I was so excited! I thought I was better... next day, HELL NO!) It gradually builds up during the day until my legs feel like Jell-O by nighttime. It feels like someone has tied lead weights to my feet and lifting my legs becomes so difficult that I sometimes end up tripping and falling. It's like my legs don't work anymore. The pain is much worse in the evening than in the morning and any movement makes it worse also.

What relieves the pain? 3 celery stalks juiced (makes about 1 cup of celery juice) really helps. Actually it helps more than I thought it would. The problem is that with my rotation diet I can have celery juice once every 3 days. And according to research, I can't take more than 1 cup of vegetable juice daily or I will overdose on the good stuff in it. I tried drinking 1 cup each day, but eventually I was so nauseous from it that I had to stop and wait for a few days to start again.

What Causes or increases the pain? Any movement at all. Walking and sitting are horrendous. But I can't just lay around all day so I make myself walk, even though I am dying inside.

Effects of Pain
Accompanying symptoms: When it's bad enough, I start shaking uncontrollably. I get headaches from lack of sleep. Sometimes it hurts so much that I get nauseous. I haven't actually thrown up though.

Sleep: Sucks. I sleep maybe 4 hours a night. Usually I sleep for an hour at a time and wake up in pain. They gave me ambien to help me sleep. I can sleep 6 hours (sometimes) on ambien but I wake up every couple of hours miserable and then I feel out of it for the rest of the day. My sleep hasn't been solid, restful sleep for awhile now.

Appetite: I noticed I either starving or have no appetite. I'm not sure if I should count that... but before I was almost always wanting to eat something. I had to eat every 2 hours. Now, i make myself eat a few bites every couple hours and have a main meal for the day.

Physical Activity: Uhm, well, I can dress myself and bathe myself. I force myself to walk 2 blocks and back each day (sometimes more) because I am afraid my legs will atrophy and cause more problems. But I have to skip days because the pain is so intense I can barely function. I do manage to do light housework. I am up to 20 minutes about 2 to 3 times a day. I can sometimes stand long enough to cook a meal, other times I can stand long enough to microwave oatmeal.

Relationship with others: When I hurt, I am a complete bitch. I don't know how anyone can stand me sometimes. :( But I do pretty well most of the time. Although I am pretty irritable from pain a lot. I try to cope with it when people are around, especially hang out night! I usually end up going and laying down in bed so I don't start getting cranky when everyone is here. I just lay there by myself.

Emotions:  When I first wake up, I am in a pretty good mood. I try to be positive as much as possible. When I really start hurting bad, I am not as chipper. I end up crying from the pain a lot. Mostly it's when I just can't take being in pain anymore. I have days where I am pretty angry about the whole thing. I have days where I just don't really want to do anything. Partly because I am exhausted and partly because I just don't want to move. If I move it hurts worse. I just want a day without intense pain.

Current Pain Medication: None.

Other Meds: Benadryl PRN for allergies, Chew Vitamins (2 daily), Ambien (not taking it though), Albuterol inhaler PRN

Bored? 13 Things to do while sittin’ on your bum.

     My dear friend had surgery the other day and now she is wheelchair/ walker bound for six weeks while her knee heels. She’s going to get bored so my boys and I sat down and made a list of fun things to do while you are on bed rest.
     The obvious is reading, computer (email, surfing), Sudoku, puzzles and stuff of that nature… but we thought of something fun that involves the computer… BLOG! So, dear friend (yes, we’re looking at you, Donna!) we want to see a blog about post-surgery knee healing! You can add your blog to the comments section and we’ll stalk y… er, follow you!

Interesting fact time! This blog started in March of 2003 after my hysterectomy. I was on bed rest and dying of boredom. Back then it was blogspot and was pretty basic. It has changed a lot over time, along with this blog. This blog started out as a journal, turned into a family updates blog, then a picture blog and is now my baby. I can’t get rid of it. It means too much to me.

After the obvious… 13 things you can do while sitting down…

1- Hand shadow show! Make up a story line and act it out with your fingers once it’s dark. I found it’s lots of fun to try and make different things. You can google hand shadows and see if you can find some lessons on how to make elaborate hand shadows. I want blogging details!
2- Drawing. Draw pictures of anything in the room. With six weeks of post surgery boredom, you could get really good at drawing. If you suck at drawing, you can make stick figure cartoons. I’ll see if I can find some of mine and post them for you all to giggle over. I want pictures!
3. Origami- The beautiful art of paper folding! You can make ornaments for your tree or make a million teeny paper swans to bury yourself under while you’re sitting there bored out of your skull.
4. Macramé and Hemp bracelets- Look up patterns for hemp jewelry and friendship bracelets. Start knotting your way to beautiful items (you can sell these on Etsy for a small profit if you’re really bored. The USPS will come straight to your door to pick up packages.)
5. Crochet or knit- IMO, crochet is a lot easier overall. If you don’t know how to crochet or knit, there are tutorials online and books that come with a kit that can teach you. Crochet and knit is fun, gives you something to occupy your time and you’ll have plenty of scarves, hats and other things to give away as presents!
6. Write short stories, write a novel or a children’s book (complete with illustrations)- What could be more fun than a barrel of monkeys? Writing a book! You can write short stories, write a novel or write a children’s book (complete with pictures!) and when you are through, you can cruise on over to Lulu.com, create your book and put it on the market.
7. Create a picture book on Lulu.com

• Go through those thousands of photos you have stored on your computer and make them the best by using Google Picasa to edit your pictures. You can add text, crop, adjust the brightness/ contrast, get rid of red eye and million more things! I love Picasa!
  
• Once you have a nice collection of photos, sort them by category, event, person… whatever.
  
• Go to Lulu.com and create a picture book. You can sell them, keep them private, make them as gifts for friends and family, etc… You can also make calendars!

8. Video blog your boring time. Getting bored? yet? Well, video blog about it! Sometimes I love to watch video blogs because you can see the facial expressions. You can also Skype me. I’d love to chat! Just call first. I don’t keep Skype running.
9. Help with meals- One thing I loved doing while I was healing from surgeries and I wasn’t allowed to do anything, was to help fix food. I would sit in my chair and my husband or kids would bring the food items to me to help make. Sandwiches, cookies, etc. You can help make a lot of things while sitting in your recliner. My favorite to make was stuffed shells. I could make the cheese filling, add it to the already cooked shells, layer it in the pan and get it all ready to bake, all while sitting down! PS, cover yourself with towels. It’s a lot easier to clean up that way.
10. Play sock basketball!- Have someone set a basket across the room after you’ve folded all the socks you can find.

To fold… Lay sock flat and roll up from the toe. Then tuck the whole thing into the opening by wrapping the opening around the ball. (I’ll try to post pics later)

Now start throwing! 1 point if it bounces off anything before landing in the basket. 2 points if it just flies right in like you know what your doing LOL.
11. Card games- Solitaire, pyramid, Kings corners… there are so many games you can play by yourself. Fluxx, Phase 10… There are so many more you can play with family and friends. Have everyone make a snack, make drinks (non-alcoholic!) and have a card playing night.
12. Journal your time with index cards- For each day you get one index card. The cards can be the small 3X5 cards or any bigger size that you want. Make sure they are lined.

1. On the blank side: Draw, paint, glue items on, tape on a favorite picture you found, write one word that defines the day, put down your favorite quote. Be creative! This side is to visually show everyone how your day went.
2. On the lined side: This is your journal. I like to do something simple like- “Today this made me happy”, “I was sad when…”, “5 things I did today”, “If I remember nothing else about today, I really want to remember…”, “My pet peeve for today”… the options are endless. You can use more than one or you can just do a little bit of journaling your day.
3. Keep the cards in a cute decorated box (another “sittin’ on my bum” activity!) Or you can put them in a 3-ring notebook in page protectors so you can flip through them when you are bored. 

13. Fill out your cards for the year! Talk about getting ahead of yourself! Get out your calendar for this year, fill in birthdays and Anniversaries in your calendar for next year, label all the major holidays… Now, have someone buy all the cards for next year (or make them!) and get them all ready. You can store them in shoe boxes by month or by holiday (or both). Now you are WAY ahead of yourself!

Now, if you are reading this list and you’ve thought of something to add… send me comment or email. I’m making a second list of 13 things to do while sittin’ on your bum! I’ll add your idea to the list along with your name (or as anonymous) and post it once I have 13 things!
Donna, you get better!
Everyone else, Blog on!
Dotchi Latham