The "Comfort Zone"

I saw this sign today and remembered that a very, very wise teacher once told me that you really don't learn much until you start to feel uncomfortable.  I had forgotten this message as I have been spending as much time as possible trying to NOT be uncomfortable and blaming it on getting old and cranky.  Although I am pretty sure this "uncomfortable" does not include in-laws, eating until you don't fit your clothing and uncomfortable silences.

When Friends Make the Board of Directors

 

   My pal New York posted this rant on her Facebook page and it reminded me that I had a similar rant in my “Things that piss me off” file to be posted at a later date.  So I dug in and found it.  I have known for some time that New York and I had a few things in common.  Surprise, surprise its sarcasm!

New York:

 I have a rant...after sitting in Emergency for 8 hours for the third time in 3 months I have some views on our medical system...the problem is not bed shortages...the problem is the patients!  People are truly stupid.  Girl to my right... if you can walk on your foot it's not BROKEN, girl on my left...It is called a period Buck up buttercup, and loser in front of me...you have the flu...you are not dying...go home and puke there… and don’t even get me started on the lady playing chinese nursery rhymes for her totally fine child who really will have gender issues with that outfit on, over and over, and over again!  If all these idiots would go see their family Doctors or go to a walk-in clinic we wouldn’t be waiting 8 hours! Teach people the meaning of EMERGECNY!

Me:

A short time ago I had the misfortune of having to take one of our kids to the Children’s hospital after being told to go there from a clinic doctor.  I incorrectly assumed that if a Doctor told us we needed to get our kid to the hospital (and not the local one, the Children’s one) that there was a mighty good reason for it.  So super long story really short we sat there for hours upon hours with a young child who by 1:00 in the morning was not the happiest person I have been around.  Needless to say I lost my mind.  Normally I am a very patient and understanding person but after watching multiple people bring their kids into the emergency ward and using the thing as their own personal walk in clinic I lost my patience and tore a strip off the intake person.  Seriously!  The jist of it was that we were told to get there by a freaking doctor and after sitting there for five freakin hours watching the stream of kids with the sniffles and one kid with a small cut on his foot (hello, dad?  Ever heard of an effin bandaid?) go in before us, I was about to kill someone.  Needless to say I told the hospital worker lady that this was bullshit.  We got into see a doctor not long after.  (Yes, I won the asshole award that night.  Not a proud moment but it got the job done.)

I have been thinking for quite some time now that if I ran the world (or at least the medical system) I would hire a liaison for each emergency ward to assist with the intake of patients.  The title of this position would be “Reality Check Liaison” and the main focus of their job would be to tell people to go the eff home and go to the clinic tomorrow.  If I could drag the head honcho of health care to a couple of emergency wards to sit there for 7 hours and wait for service I think he might agree with me.  I would willingly apply to work a few shifts just to look at some of these stupid asshats sideways and ask them if they are really freaking serious.  I could hand out bandaids and those ridiculous kidney shaped cardboard puking trays they have in the hospital to some of these people.  “Here, have a complimentary puke tray.  Shut up and go home.  You have the flu”.

Although I am a longer winded (is that a proper term?) don’t these rants sound eerily similar?  I am thinking that I will be hiring New York to sit on the Board of Directors when I run the world.  She just gets it!

(On a super cool, happy note I would like to extend my congratulations to New York and her fella Charlie on the recent addition to their family.  Sometimes things are worth the wait and it couldn’t have happened to two better people!)