Great News! My dad is coming home!
Praise God, the news from the oncologist is "NO Cancer".
Thank you all for your prayers and please don't stop yet. He still needs a healing, and we're trusting that the Lord will continue to show grace to him and relieve him of his pain.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
My Dad, Anthony Grossi
I'm now back home after a roller-coaster ride of a weekend!
I received a call from my Mother, Anita, on Friday afternoon telling me that my Dad had been admitted to the hospital for severe pain in his right arm and high blood pressure that could not be controlled by medications (like, it was around 260/140).
I immediately made plans to go home for the weekend.
Saturday morning at 7 am, I received a call from my mother telling me that the Doctors at Cortland Hospital suspected that he had lung cancer and that it had metastasised to his right arm and had spread to his bones. Well, as you can imagine, I was distraught at the thought that my father had the same type of cancer that killed two of his siblings within the last 5 or so years.
My sister, Kathy, who works at Crouse Hospital, suggested and made arrangements for my Dad to be moved to a Syracuse Hospital - since all of my Dad's doctors are located in Syracuse. Our hope was that his care would be more immediate and expedited since all of his doctors were already in that area.
Because my Dad's charted stated that he was being removed due to "the family's request", his insurance company refused to pay for the ambulance ride necessary for the transfer. So, this poor, wonderful, beautiful nurse at Cortland Hospital had to come into my Dad's room to tell him that the Ambulance company would not agree to transport him unless they guaranteed them payment when they arrived at the hospital. WOW! I thought my brother Bob was going to have a stroke right there when every vein in his head and neck stood out! We sat in stunned silence. (Okay, we were quite for only a second; it is OUR family after all, and we certainly don't have a problem voicing our feelings and opinions.)
Can you imagine being a nurse for an elderly patient, (who just wants to be taken care of by the doctors he knows and trusts), and having to walk into his room and tell him that he has to come up with $950 on the spot!? This poor nurse felt soooo bad, and quite honestly a bit irate, that she had been put into that spot. Once we figured out how my Dad was going to arrange for payment, she called the ambulance service to let them know that we would pay, and you won't believe what they did next! They asked the nurse at the hospital to get my Dad's credit card number and expiration date so that they could run the charge before they left their ambulance bay!
My Dad's nurse told the person on the telephone that she wasn't a member of their billing department, she was a nurse, and if they wanted my Dad's credit card information then they could send someone over to get it themselves. Can you honestly believe the nerve of that company!?
Have any of you nurses out there ever run into a similar situation? What do you say to a patient in that situation? Or do you make the ambulance company responsible for relaying the information? I'd really love to hear about how you would deal with that.
Well, they payed the ambulance company, and once we got my Dad settled into his new hospital and had his doctors review his films, they assured us that my Dad most likely did NOT have bone cancer, and that his lungs showed no signs of cancer. Phew!
Now, let me ask you, why would 2 doctors come up with 2 completely different diagnosis when looking at the same films? Now, I understand that there could be slightly differing opinions about the degree or seriousness of a condition, but to completely misdiagnose someone? I just don't get it!
My Dad has undergone a battery of tests, and as of today, all tests confirm that there is NO bone cancer and that there is NO lung cancer and he will be able to come home. His doctors are trying to get to the bottom of his condition by the process of elimination - which makes complete sense to me - doesn't it to you? Or do some doctors think that it makes more sense to scare an elderly patient half to death, literally, by delivering a gloom-and-doom diagnosis without being absolutely sure first!? (Oh, by the way, his blood pressure is now somewhat under control.)
Okay, Okay! Enough griping.
I do want to take the time to thank the Doctors and Nursing Staff at his Hospital for taking such good care of my Dad.
I also want to thank my sister Kathy for making sure that our Dad always receives the best care there is available in Syracuse, and for translating all of the "Doctor Lingo" into layman terms for the rest of the family. We love you Kathy and we're so thankful for your talent and love for Dad.
Thank you to my brother Bob for being there for my Mom and Dad ALWAYS. I love you!
And thank you to my sister Sue for all of the free entertainment when she visits! You're a nut Suzie, but we all love you deeply. Thank you for always finding a way to make us smile.
Please, continue to keep my Dad in your prayers as he's still dealing with some severe pain issues. And pray for my Mom, Anita, too please. She's been through an awful lot the last few days. I love you Mom, so please be sure you eat right and get some rest too, okay?!
I love you Dad! You can yell at me all you want Dad, but I know you really love me! I only worry when you're not giving me a hard time. We are all blessed to have you as a Dad!
That's all for today. Until next time.....
I received a call from my Mother, Anita, on Friday afternoon telling me that my Dad had been admitted to the hospital for severe pain in his right arm and high blood pressure that could not be controlled by medications (like, it was around 260/140).
I immediately made plans to go home for the weekend.
Saturday morning at 7 am, I received a call from my mother telling me that the Doctors at Cortland Hospital suspected that he had lung cancer and that it had metastasised to his right arm and had spread to his bones. Well, as you can imagine, I was distraught at the thought that my father had the same type of cancer that killed two of his siblings within the last 5 or so years.
My sister, Kathy, who works at Crouse Hospital, suggested and made arrangements for my Dad to be moved to a Syracuse Hospital - since all of my Dad's doctors are located in Syracuse. Our hope was that his care would be more immediate and expedited since all of his doctors were already in that area.
Because my Dad's charted stated that he was being removed due to "the family's request", his insurance company refused to pay for the ambulance ride necessary for the transfer. So, this poor, wonderful, beautiful nurse at Cortland Hospital had to come into my Dad's room to tell him that the Ambulance company would not agree to transport him unless they guaranteed them payment when they arrived at the hospital. WOW! I thought my brother Bob was going to have a stroke right there when every vein in his head and neck stood out! We sat in stunned silence. (Okay, we were quite for only a second; it is OUR family after all, and we certainly don't have a problem voicing our feelings and opinions.)
Can you imagine being a nurse for an elderly patient, (who just wants to be taken care of by the doctors he knows and trusts), and having to walk into his room and tell him that he has to come up with $950 on the spot!? This poor nurse felt soooo bad, and quite honestly a bit irate, that she had been put into that spot. Once we figured out how my Dad was going to arrange for payment, she called the ambulance service to let them know that we would pay, and you won't believe what they did next! They asked the nurse at the hospital to get my Dad's credit card number and expiration date so that they could run the charge before they left their ambulance bay!
My Dad's nurse told the person on the telephone that she wasn't a member of their billing department, she was a nurse, and if they wanted my Dad's credit card information then they could send someone over to get it themselves. Can you honestly believe the nerve of that company!?
Have any of you nurses out there ever run into a similar situation? What do you say to a patient in that situation? Or do you make the ambulance company responsible for relaying the information? I'd really love to hear about how you would deal with that.
Well, they payed the ambulance company, and once we got my Dad settled into his new hospital and had his doctors review his films, they assured us that my Dad most likely did NOT have bone cancer, and that his lungs showed no signs of cancer. Phew!
Now, let me ask you, why would 2 doctors come up with 2 completely different diagnosis when looking at the same films? Now, I understand that there could be slightly differing opinions about the degree or seriousness of a condition, but to completely misdiagnose someone? I just don't get it!
My Dad has undergone a battery of tests, and as of today, all tests confirm that there is NO bone cancer and that there is NO lung cancer and he will be able to come home. His doctors are trying to get to the bottom of his condition by the process of elimination - which makes complete sense to me - doesn't it to you? Or do some doctors think that it makes more sense to scare an elderly patient half to death, literally, by delivering a gloom-and-doom diagnosis without being absolutely sure first!? (Oh, by the way, his blood pressure is now somewhat under control.)
Okay, Okay! Enough griping.
I do want to take the time to thank the Doctors and Nursing Staff at his Hospital for taking such good care of my Dad.
I also want to thank my sister Kathy for making sure that our Dad always receives the best care there is available in Syracuse, and for translating all of the "Doctor Lingo" into layman terms for the rest of the family. We love you Kathy and we're so thankful for your talent and love for Dad.
Thank you to my brother Bob for being there for my Mom and Dad ALWAYS. I love you!
And thank you to my sister Sue for all of the free entertainment when she visits! You're a nut Suzie, but we all love you deeply. Thank you for always finding a way to make us smile.
Please, continue to keep my Dad in your prayers as he's still dealing with some severe pain issues. And pray for my Mom, Anita, too please. She's been through an awful lot the last few days. I love you Mom, so please be sure you eat right and get some rest too, okay?!
I love you Dad! You can yell at me all you want Dad, but I know you really love me! I only worry when you're not giving me a hard time. We are all blessed to have you as a Dad!
That's all for today. Until next time.....
Treating a Cow with Mastitis? What!?
So, have you been wondering about how I learned to treat a cow with mastitis?
After leaving the Head Trauma Center, I went to work full-time for Agway as this job was closer to where I was attending college. This is also how I met my wonderful husband. When I had to work Sundays, I would go to church in the town where I worked in instead of my home church, and that is where our story started. But, more about that in my personal blog some other time...
Back to Agway. I was hired as a bookkeeper, and I had the 'joy' of converting an office/retail store from the old paper ledger method of bookkeeping over to a full-functioning computerized POS Retail system and accounting system.
I know it sounds 'sick' but I had never had so much fun as I did cleaning up that place! "What? Me! Organize your entire office? Well, okay. If you insist." Right! I was in heaven, people! For those of you who know me well, this isn't a stretch for you to imagine, is it?
Okay, so after the office and retail part of the business was off and running, I learned the difference between PVC pipe and Conduit pipe, how to fix basic electrical & various plumbing problems (like how to fix a leaky toilet and what a Johnny Ring was and how to install it properly), what to feed a calf versus a lactating cow and what horses need to eat.
Once I had those tools "under my belt" (pun intended), they let me loose in the paint and wallpaper department where I was in charge of computing how much wallpaper and/or paint a customer needed to paper a room or a house. More numbers....yes! Bring it on!
Next, they let me out into the nursery, where I learned how to teach people to take care of any type of plant they might have. Funny thing is, I could teach others what to do, but to this day I have a brown thumb. Hmm, you can lead a horse to water.......
Are you wondering where the cow with mastitis comes in yet? Well, at Agway, we also sold medicine for cows suffering from mastitis/dry cow, and other ailments. We kept much of this medicine in the store's refrigerator. So, when farmers needed one of these medicines, they would simply go to the refrigerator and get what they needed.
Well! All of that changed once I had my oldest son and went back to work. I had to express my milk at lunch time. Oh my! Those good ole' farmers cracked me up!
Okay, so I would express my milk at lunch and put it in the fridge... logical, right? Well, once word of this got out (via the first farmer to find out what was being stored next to his penicillin) the farmers refused to open the fridge! They would make me go back and get the medicine for them!
I would ask them, "What's the big deal? You milk COWS for a living, for heaven's sake! A little bottle of breast milk isn't going to jump out and bite you!" But no way! They weren't having anything to do with being anywhere near my br..br...breast milk!
So, I had to learn which medicine treated what in order to be sure that they were getting what they really needed. It still makes me laugh to this very day!
I could sit for hours and type story after story about what I learned working for Bill & Joan Beck at that Agway store. I worked there for over 7 years, so I learned, saw and heard plenty. If I had to sum up the most important lessons that I learned there, they would be.....
After leaving the Head Trauma Center, I went to work full-time for Agway as this job was closer to where I was attending college. This is also how I met my wonderful husband. When I had to work Sundays, I would go to church in the town where I worked in instead of my home church, and that is where our story started. But, more about that in my personal blog some other time...
Back to Agway. I was hired as a bookkeeper, and I had the 'joy' of converting an office/retail store from the old paper ledger method of bookkeeping over to a full-functioning computerized POS Retail system and accounting system.
I know it sounds 'sick' but I had never had so much fun as I did cleaning up that place! "What? Me! Organize your entire office? Well, okay. If you insist." Right! I was in heaven, people! For those of you who know me well, this isn't a stretch for you to imagine, is it?
Okay, so after the office and retail part of the business was off and running, I learned the difference between PVC pipe and Conduit pipe, how to fix basic electrical & various plumbing problems (like how to fix a leaky toilet and what a Johnny Ring was and how to install it properly), what to feed a calf versus a lactating cow and what horses need to eat.
Once I had those tools "under my belt" (pun intended), they let me loose in the paint and wallpaper department where I was in charge of computing how much wallpaper and/or paint a customer needed to paper a room or a house. More numbers....yes! Bring it on!
Next, they let me out into the nursery, where I learned how to teach people to take care of any type of plant they might have. Funny thing is, I could teach others what to do, but to this day I have a brown thumb. Hmm, you can lead a horse to water.......
Are you wondering where the cow with mastitis comes in yet? Well, at Agway, we also sold medicine for cows suffering from mastitis/dry cow, and other ailments. We kept much of this medicine in the store's refrigerator. So, when farmers needed one of these medicines, they would simply go to the refrigerator and get what they needed.
Well! All of that changed once I had my oldest son and went back to work. I had to express my milk at lunch time. Oh my! Those good ole' farmers cracked me up!
Okay, so I would express my milk at lunch and put it in the fridge... logical, right? Well, once word of this got out (via the first farmer to find out what was being stored next to his penicillin) the farmers refused to open the fridge! They would make me go back and get the medicine for them!
I would ask them, "What's the big deal? You milk COWS for a living, for heaven's sake! A little bottle of breast milk isn't going to jump out and bite you!" But no way! They weren't having anything to do with being anywhere near my br..br...breast milk!
So, I had to learn which medicine treated what in order to be sure that they were getting what they really needed. It still makes me laugh to this very day!
I could sit for hours and type story after story about what I learned working for Bill & Joan Beck at that Agway store. I worked there for over 7 years, so I learned, saw and heard plenty. If I had to sum up the most important lessons that I learned there, they would be.....
- Be kind to everyone, whether they deserve it or not. - Thank you Joan for that lesson.
- NEVER work with your spouse if you can help it! - Thank you Bill for that lesson. Although I didn't learn that particular lesson myself, until my husband and I were almost divorced; but I eventually figured it out.
- Finally, always stand up for what you believe, even if people ridicule you for it - Thank you to the local science teacher for that lesson. For as many times as he made fun of me, I learned to stick to my guns, so to speak, and let compassion and understanding do my talking for me. Repeat after me...God loves him just as much as he loves me... God loves him just as much as he loves me....
Next up, life lessons learned by a stay-at-home mom! Stay tuned....
Who is Jody Earle?
For my first post, I thought I'd let you know a little more about myself. Now, first things first, the picture that you see here is not actually me, but it is where I wish I could be and pretty well sums up my state of mind.... most days....Here we go! In addition to working at Sassy Scrubs, I've been married for 18 years and am the mother of three wonderful boys. We currently have one son being home schooled (at one point all 3 boys were home schooled) and two sons in High School. My husband has the privilege of being a stay-at-home dad and he handles the majority of the homeschooling and housekeeping.
I must admit, I'm a 'kept' woman and I love it. When I get home from work, the house is usually clean and dinner is waiting. What woman wouldn't love that?! My personal interests include: reading, quilting, camping, traveling (I went to China in 2007) and playing games with my family (a family favorite is Settlers of Catan). I am also involved in my church and serve as Financial Secretary, Women's Ministry Coordinator and Building Committee Member.
It is a rare thing to find someone who truly loves their job, but it's true... I do love my job. Even though I may wear many hats here at work, I can assure you that my days are far from boring. I get to use my 'left brain', detail oriented side as a bookkeeper and inventory specialist but I also get to use my 'right brain', creative side when it comes to creating our Sassy e-newsletters and in-house marketing publications.
Before coming to Sassy Scrubs, I had job opportunities that expanded my skills and today allows me to bring layers of talents to my job. Over the next few posts, I'll share with you why I feel it is so important to learn something from every single experience this life sends your way. The more layers of talent you have, the more value you present to prospective employers. Not only that, it makes you simply feel confident about yourself. All right, come back with me for a trip down memory lane....
As a waitress for Ponderosa, I learned customer service skills and invaluable common sense life-lessons, (like not carrying a hot baked potato with bare hands), and how to handle obnoxious high-school sports teams and intoxicated packs of hunters with grace and humor.
As a switchboard operator and unit secretary at an upscale Head Trauma/Extended Care Unit I learned compassion for people enduring life's trials. I learned how to work a switchboard with 24 incoming lines and more than 100 in-house lines, and how to interpret and type reports from the mix of Italian and English for a very handsome Maintenance manager. Now, if that doesn't teach you to multi-task, I don't know what will. Well...alright, motherhood beats that out, but I digress.
Well, that's enough about me for now. Stay tuned for my next post to see how I learned to treat a cow suffering with mastitis.....
Posted by Jody Earle - Marketing & IT Manager http://www.sassyscrubs.com/
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