staying cool

So today I was walking through the medicine unit and saw a patient I recognized- obviously someone we had recruited earlier who had been rehospitalized.  I debated eye contact since I didn't remember him well and was going to be late to spin class, but decided to stop and just say hi.  I hope I always decide to say hi.

It's always hard to make small chat with a hospitalized patient.  We expect the answer to the formality "hey, how are you?" to be "good, thanks".  In these cases, intuitively it should be "well, not so good, I'm here in the hospital aren't I?"  But after all, there is a reason we ask these questions.

Luckily, he was doing "better" as the meds were helping his heart failure symptoms (fluid retention- trouble breathing, swelling).  I saw he had a folded newspaper on the bed- great conversation topic.  "Are you reading that?" I rhetorically asked to start a convo.  "No, this is my fan" he responded.

men's internal medicine ward, where we collected patients
it was being repainted, and they replaced the bed frames and
tables to much newer equipment

Let me explain.  In this public hospital, there is not enough government funding.  Of the inpatient services, only the operating rooms have airconditioning.  The medicine unit, a huge room with 20 beds, had only a few fans dangling from the high ceiling, and the patients are left to fend for themselves.  In this hot city, the inpatient men spend the afternoons sprawled on their beds shirtless, too hot to to anything but sweat and fan themselves with cardboard pieces- the best kind of fan, light but sturdy and forceful at pushing air.  Jackie and I would see that scene many afternoons and smile, it became commonplace to us.


Anyways, so I just laughed at myself for having assumed the newspaper was for reading.  I was late to spin class, but glad I could chat, and challenge my assumptions once again.  I should stay in this place longer.