Don't be afraid to ask the question....

My daughter had surgery last Thursday. It involved her pituitary gland, so it had to be done by a neurosurgeon. After spending 2 1/2 days in the Neuro Critical Care unit, she was moved to a room in a regular unit. I had gone home for a break and wasn't around when she was actually moved to her new room. This particular hospital has very few private rooms so we were expecting she'd be sharing her recovery space.

When I got back to the hospital, I found her in a semi private room all right. But she was on the hallway side which meant all the staff and visitors for her roommate would have to go pass her... not very conducive to recovery and rest. (As if that is the purpose of a hospital stay anyway) On my way to her room, I noticed several empty rooms. After seeing her cramped quarters (We couldn't even get to the shared closet space to put her things away. The other patient's family had commandeered all the visitor chairs as well.), I decided that it wouldn't hurt to ask if she could be moved to one of the empty rooms and put on the window side.

After finding the charge nurse, I asked the question; emphasizing that my daughter had just come from the NCC unit and basically hadn't slept in several days. After a brief hesitation, the nurse says "I can move her." I barely had time to go back to my daughter's room when staff came in to move her. I'm thinking "Wow, that was fast." The staff is organizing all her equipment, IV stand, etc while I gather up her personal belongings. One of them says to me: "We're moving her to 309. Is that OK?" Again, I'm thinking "309, 316, 126 - it makes no difference as long as she's on the window side" . I head down the hall to 309.

Blogger's Note: You have to know this daughter is Kelly...our family medical anomaly. Her past medical experiences have been anything but "normal" or easy. I won't go into details.

Back to the story: I opened the door to room 309 and my jaw literally dropped. Remember, nothing good has ever really happened to Kelly when it has come to medical related issues.
Kelly would be getting a window in room 309. But she also got a room that was bigger than some hotel rooms. It had hardwood floor (maybe fake - but definitely not linoleum), a large couch, leather recliner, several other chairs, a coffee table, side table with lamp, media cabinet with TV and DVD player, marble (probably fake as well - who cares?) counter on the sink, private bathroom and oh, the huge window had plantation shutters on it. After Kelly gets settled in her new "digs", the charge nurse comes in to see "if everything is OK". My private reaction was "Mmm...is this room available in pink? How about a microwave, turn down service and mints on her pillow?? Really, guys, you can do better than this!"

It turns out Kelly scored a VIP room. Apparently, the only VIP room in the hospital like it.

Just goes to show, it doesn't hurt to ask. You never know what you'll get for an answer. It also proves that there is God up above who believes that just once in awhile a lowly mortal deserves a break.

A Sucker born every day? Part 2

After a discussion last night with family about the advantages of DVR, I called the cable company again this morning. Just to make sure that I knew what I was talking about, I got on the company's website before I called them and used the phone by the computer so that I could reference the info on the website while talking to a live person at the cable company. It turns out that the website is a "national" website and each state has its own packages and pricing. So after getting the more or less correct info from our local cable company on their packages, it turns out that to get DVR it will cost $107.00 a month!!! That's almost double what we pay now! We would be required to upgrade to the Premium Plus package ($95/month). The rental of the DVR box adds another $12. Well, I'm not falling for this new "sucker" package. Everyone living at the same address as me will just have to be happy with our "Digital Classic" package. That is, unless, they want to pony up for the difference.

A Sucker born every day?

A several months ago, we purchased a new television - digital and all that. In order to get digital, we needed a cable box. Of course, we had to pick the box up from the cable company and install it ourselves. Now you'd think that there would be some kind of instructions for those that are electronically challenged about how to connect everything up and get it working probably. Well - no. I was handed the cable box, a bag of cables, remote and a card with the channels we would be getting. That was it. The customer service gal must have thought I was an idiot when I asked if there were instructions for installing. "No" she said, shoving the cable box and all the stuff at me. Thanks to my son and son-in-law, it got connected and seemed to be working fine. We had a better picture and a few more channels for about $8 more a month. We were happy.

That is until we spent some time watching TV at my brother-in-laws house a couple of weeks ago. It seems that there's this fancy feature called "DVR" that you can get from the cable company. It sounded great - record what you want, watch it when you want, blitzing through the commercials. The next day, I called the cable company to get DVR added to our account. Seems like I could get DVR added for an additional $12 a month and they would send a technician out with the box and get it all connected. They gave me an appointment for 3 days later. Great! Terrific! We all waited in anticipation.

Come the day of the appointment, I get a phone call from the technician. It went something like this:

"Hello, this is John Doe from Comcast. Uh, didn't they tell you when you made this appointment that we were out of the DVR boxes for another two weeks?"

Me - "No, they failed to share that little bit of information. Can we just reschedule the appointment then?"

Technician - "You'll have to call the office in a few days to do that. But I've put a red "S" on the service request."

Me - "What's the red S mean?"

Technician - "That's so the office will know you made this request, but we didn't have the equipment at the time. You'll get better attention."

Me - "OK, I'll call back in a few days."

This morning I called the cable company.

Me: "I had an appointment last week for a tech to come an install DVR on our cable. He couldn't do it because you were out of the equipment and told me to call back this week."

C. S.: "Since you only have classic service, we will have to upgrade you to the Platinum Super Duper service with 30 more channels in order to get DVR. And we don't have any boxes in and don't know when we will get them."

Me: "How much more will that cost per month?"

C.S.: "Oh, It's a lot." (offers no $ amount) Now I'm thinking it must a kazillion more dollars a month.

Me: "So, how much is "a lot more"?" She finally tells me that the total package is $95 a month.

Me: "I was told I could get DVR for another $12? What's the deal?"

So she proceeds to tell me, after a conferring with her supervisor, that if I come in to the store and pick up the DVR box and install it myself, they will "honor" the $12 quote. If I pick the box up and want a tech to install it, I have to call AFTER I've picked the box up and make an appointment. Seems they have the "new" boxes at the store. But don't know when the "new" boxes will be available so I can make an appointment to have a tech bring one to the house and install it. So, we are sticking with our original cable. Geez!

Now I'm thinking that the red "S" the tech wrote on my service order actually stood for "Sucker". But I didn't fall for it.

Another Delivery

Emily
September 11, 2007
6 lbs 14 oz, 20"

Once this little girl decided to join her family, it was a speedy arrival. Mother and baby are doing well. Big brother is still trying to figure out what a baby sister is all about. But he did tell her "I lub you, Emmie" and gave her a kiss before going home.

Wait No more

Just in case any one is holding their breath waiting for me to post "B is for", you can breathe now. I've decided that the ABC thing isn't my thing. There won't be any "B", "C" .....

Potential ER Customers

Today, I saw some adolescents practicing long boarding on a fairly busy local street. They were taking turns riding out of a steep, somewhat blind driveway on to the road. Most of them didn't stay upright as they made the turn unto the street. But I had to give them a little credit for a dab of brains - the hospital ER was a half a block away.

Fooled Them!

Apparently, the DMV has redesigned the "official" drivers license. So instead of getting a sticker to put on the back of my old expired license, I got an entirely new license in the mail the other day (See an earlier post about renewing my license). Well, you actually can fool the DMV because the picture of me on my license will be 10 years old when it's time for the next renewal. I can just hear them now when I go in to renew in 5 years, "The picture on your license looks pretty good for an old lady."