A Tale of Three Hospitals

The first hospital is the happiest of 3: George Maxwell Groves is here! Baby George, the first boy grandbaby for the Chet and Rise, was just born out in Texas! This makes Clay a 4 time Uncle and is baby #3 for Shirley and Mike and they seem like total pros!! :) Have I mentioned yet how excited I am to meet all of the summer babies yet??? Because I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The second hospital takes a scarier turn. Those of you who know my brothers know they are gluttons for adrenaline - Josh and Kerry being the firefighters and Jake being the cop/air force kid. Even Kerry's wife Mac works on LifeFlight and in ER's - they are all so amazing and work so hard to do so much good for so many people (well that and save cats from trees and eat donuts). So when my mom called yesterday I didn't expect it to be about Josh going to the hospital. Having been around firemen for 15+years now (or is it 20 Kerry???) with (Thank the Lord above) no major injuries, it's all to easy to forget how dangerous their jobs really all are.

So sure enough, Josh got caught in one of those dangerous places yesterday morning while working at Dekalb - here's an article about it. Josh is doing ok now but here is what I've pieced together from the story: he was in the basement of a 5600 sq ft house with his partner - no doors, no windows - could barely see his partner's flashlight 24 inches in front of him. While in this less-than-desirable situation, they got tangled up in all of the wires hanging down from the drop ceiling, when they both ran out of air and got lost in the dark, smoky basement. They finally made it out of the house but they were in pretty bad shape and had to be taken to the hospital and put in a hyperbolic chamber for a few hours.

Talk about a small world - a really great former coworker from SunTrust (rare, I know!) Helen's mom is the nurse at Crawford Long Hospital where Josh and the other firefighters were taken. Crazy, huh? So it was great reassurance that she had heard about the fire and her mom remembered Josh and said they would be ok and that Josh wasn't just being macho :) Turns out a few days rest and one hell of a sore throat and lungs later - they should be ok. So please just get some rest Josh!!

So now for the third hospital - I promise this one is lighter....needless to say - Toto, we're not at Seattle Grace Hospital anymore !!! So there are many, many lessons I've learned out here and trust me when I say finding all new Doctors has certainly proved to be a huge lesson learned! You see, it turns out there are things you just sort of just know after living in a city for decades - such as which hospitals are the friggin county hospitals.

That's right folks. Erika picks out her doctor based on a nice looking hospital in the local medical neighborhood, one associated with the University of Washington with a dedicated woman's clinic, doctors who all went to reputable schools in the past couple decades, and of course one that takes my medical insurance. It's funny how the silly things like "welfare hospital" weren't on my radar during my search... You see - LESSON LEARNED!!

So I leave work early the other day, have my directions on hand, and head for my appointment. I admit as I got closer to the hospital the neighborhood got sketchier, but I rationed that's probably not unusual for a hospital with sirens blaring at all hours and sick people in and out on a constant basis. So here is little Miss. Peach finally pulling up to the building according to their directions and it is definitely a massive structure - but seriously folks - did you have to have me come in where the first sign I see is "KING COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER OFFICE"??? Ok. Strange. Seriously. This place is a little creepy. But I finally get to the parking deck - and 25 minutes later I finally find a parking spot. My original thought in this crazy parking structure is a figure 8. But after driving around nearly tossing my cookies after countless loops, turns, dips and dives it definitely turned into a "Drunken octopus" super-quickly. Yikes folks. Dizzily I finally make it up to the main level of this looney bin where I find a maze of not-so-healthy wheelchair patients who appear to be randomly-wheeled-out to smoke among the incoming traffic. And as much as I hate to say it, 'tis just a foreshadowing of what is to come.


After weaving through the smoking wheelchair obstacle course, I make it through the next strange course in county hospital through the rotating doors (warning: don't touch anything!), hop over the sleeping homeless people and around the translators trying to usher the undocumented patients out the exit door. Stop. Where's this nice "women's clinic" I read about online?? Ahh...past the white-dyed beehive lady wearing the red blazer at the information counter and around the bend. SURELY the scenery gets better (and CLEANER) around the bend. RIGHT??? No such luck - unfortunately the picture is no prettier. This is the dirtiest hospital I've ever been in. I mean absolutely no insult to Harborview at all - but suffice it to say that I would never choose Grady to go get my annual checkup, either. I find the "women's clinic" on the ground level and there I wait carefully in line with other women - none of whom I think were in my situation.


Needless to say this waiting room had the most multi-cultural group I've seen since moving to Seattle. I also think I threw them off by even having insurance. So after the fiasco of signing in with that pesky insurance card, I sit down where the only thing louder than all of the various languages being shouted all around me was the one in my head telling me to get the heck out of dodge (where of course my concern was if i'd have to pay as if i were a no show, so i decided to stay against all odds). So I finally get a call for my name (at least a close-enough Japanese version of my name) and after verifying my last name once behind locked doors, I follow the nurse to the exam room. She didn't speak engrish very well......... turns out I was the only one in who knows how long to actually go for an actual yearly preventative check-up - so much so that they couldn't even find the paper work to do so!!!! Crazy!! So first of all I threw them off by even HAVING insurance - let alone being PROACTIVE in my healthcare - they didn't even know where the patient history forms were people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO???????????

Not only that but by the time the Dr. got there she and I were talking for awhile (which, by the way, wouldn't you know it, she was actually really awesome) she noticed the nurse had only given me a sheet - not even a gown!! She then says "I know were county, but we're not that bad!" But how was I to know based on what I had seen so far?? Right before I finally left thank goodness the Dr. came back for a quick signature on some old records at which point i asked if i needed to wait for the nurse (no, surprise surprise ) - "you can just leave", she says - "exit that way". Wow. I found a bathroom on my way out, (it turns out no sample required at county, folks). Wow again. Thought I had to go - turns out county restrooms make that feeling climb right back up inside you faster than white climbs on rice. Thanks, but I'll just head out and hurry home for a shower instead. I raced out as fast as I could, still in one piece, thank goodness!!

An eye opening experience folks. And remember all of you Atlanta folks - the next time you are looking for a regular doctor - you might want to look somewhere besides GRADY!!!! ;)