[Leica] thank you all

[Brian Reid]

Bill, thank you for keeping LUGgers informed of my wife's accident and 
thanks to all of you for your good wishes and flower pictures.

I must spend the day today seeing to the rental of a medical bed, a 
wheelchair, a walker, and other such "durable medical goods" that we 
will need for her convalescence. The layout of this house is such that 
she will need to sleep in the living room while she requires the 
motorized bed.

I've had family hospitalized before, but this experience was the worst 
because I was completely cut off from her. The hospital would not let me 
in the door, and was not able to provide me with any information about 
her status. No telephone contact, no email, no text messages. Her 
surgery was re-scheduled 3 times, but I was never notified. Brutal.

I eventually found the location inside the hospital's online 
patient-tracking system in which the doctors filed their notes, and was 
able to follow what was happening by reading those notes. It takes a 
certain amount of determination to read the notes of an orthopedic 
surgeon documenting the use of drills and saws and hammers on your 
unconscious spouse.

My favorite entry from the surgeon's notes was "Instrument, sponge, and 
needle counts were correct prior to closure and at the conclusion of the 
case." Nothing accidentally left inside.

About 4 hours after the end of the procedure I was able to talk to 
Victoria on the telephone very briefly, but it was enough to let me 
sleep.