Conversations from a Hospital

Jordan's room is about where you see the man on the left!

Not that I have been trying to evesdrop. . .but when you end up in waiting rooms, hospital rooms, and cafeterias you suddenly become a captive audience. . .wanting to or not. I have found these conversations most interesting. Sadly enough, most of these conversations are not happy ones. Maybe it is just because we're in a hospital and people are a bit more stressed being here. I've just been shocked that most of these talks I hear are not on a positive, building up nature. Its made me think. . .are the topics of my conversations ones which are of an edifying nature, joyous, uplifting and heart warming? Probably not! Here are some swatches of these conversations:

(Four elderly adults - all Hospital Volunteers (that's inspiring however!) - eating their lunch). Yea, I'm too old to be doing this any more, but you have to have some reason to get up in the morning, get yourself dressed and go out into the world. If I didn't have to do this, I'd never leave the house!

Then the conversation turned to their married children and the various stages of divorce/custody battles they were all in - who their children's lawyers are and was it worth their children switching to another lawyer ending in the comment: I just don't know why they both can't act like adults.

(A "couple" - unsure if they are married or not, obviously well to do). Woman: No, I do not want your father here. This is my son's day, my time with my son - you should respect me and my time and what is important to me! Man: My father is what is important to me, if he wants to be here he will be here and you will be respectful of me and my father. (They both spoke Italian as well - maybe this was some cultural thing, I don't know) So his father came in, she was solicitous to him, they all went in to talk with the doc after the son's surgery, all went up to his room, everybody "looked" and "acted" happy.

(An elderly German man, very heavy set whose wife was having surgery accompanied by his two very impatient daughters) These were repeated conversations over 2 1/2 hours of the daughters telling the dad he didn't know what he felt, he didn't know what was going on, he didn't know what his wife was going through, he wouldn't be making any decisions - and "of course we love you." These were more than loud, more than enough!

(Young man in his late 20's. My first impression of him was, he must be a doctor. He was waiting for his wife to have a relatively minor procedure for which she would need to stay over night. I believe she had a pacemaker or something similar implanted. He was in the waiting room for all of about 1 hour. The cardiologist came and they spoke in medical terms for awhile, things went well, she'll be released in the morning, she will be in recovery for just a bit and he could go to her room and wait. He left and returned about 1/2 hour later and began to behave in a very "greater than thou, I'm a doctor sort of way. (I guess I've seen too much of that in my life time!) He yelled and screamed and demanded to see his wife. He was politely told she was still in recovery and he was not allowed to go in there. I AM A PHYSICIAN, I UNDERSTAND HIPPA, I WORK IN A HOSPITAL, I WANT TO SEE MY WIFE. When he was calmly told to go back to her room and wait, she would be there shortly, he went berserk through his brief case, pounded on the elevator doors. . . .maybe its what we all feel once in awhile, just don't vocalize quite like that.

I think I will be more careful of my conversations in public.