Pretty angry.

Sooo, my grandfather has been in the hospital since Sunday with pneumonia. 

(that's him there in the middle.  I think he's pretty fabulous!)

However, that's NOT the problem.  The problem is a long list of things that should NOT happen.  And the nurse in me is about to scream.  Luckily, Mom assures me he's had awesome nursing care (way to go, nurses!)  But, he's had crappy care on the other fronts.

He came in over a holiday weekend and was seen by the doc on call.  That's normal.  That happens.  He had been given antibiotics just a week or so earlier by his primary care doc for what he thought then might be a touch of pneumonia.  But by Sunday, he knew his oxygen wasn't doing the trick ... and sure enough.  Pulse ox = 80.  SO, a few x-rays, blood tests, and breathing treatments later, they are admitting him to get rid of his pneumonia.

Ok.  So far, I'm cool with that.  Tuesday rolls around.  Call doc goes off.  Primary care doc doesn't have hospital privileges at the moment (not due to malpractice, due to hippa ... God bless!) so, his partner sees his hospitalized patients.  Here's where I start to see red.  Tuesday, he came to the floor, apparently read Granddad's chart, wrote a note and possibly new orders and left.  Hmmmmmm ... kind of hard to write a progress note when you haven't even looked at the patient ... the patient with pneumonia (might be good to listen to lung sounds???)  My Mom's nicer than I am.  So, she finds a benefit of the doubt to give him when she finds out he had not been into Granddad's room.  We talk about it and I say, "Ask the nurse to put a note on the chart for the doctor to call you" ... and we formulate a reasonable list of questions about his pneumonia, treatment, bed rest, etc.  Wednesday rolls around ... no doc, no call.  Really???  By Thursday morning, we're both a little peeved (and my Mom's sooooo nice, she's really cute when she's ticked off!)  So, I tell her again ... call the floor, call the office.  She does.  Surprise, surprise, the doctor calls her.  And she asks her questions ... including, "Did you SEE my Dad today?" and he says "yes" ... so we think, hmmm ... took three days, but ...

Then today came.  And she calls this morning and she is HOT!!  No, actually, he didn't see Granddad yesterday.  Yep, not only has he failed to see his patient for three days now, but he also lied to her.  Really?  Really.  Ridiculous.

SOOOO ... she calls the office, talks to his nurse, calls the floor talks to Granddad's nurse (where, consequently, she gets some veiled affirmations that this is not a new thing) ... and she makes it clear that he better walk into Granddad's room today ... look at him, talk to him, listen to his lungs for crying out loud ...

And he does ... now, I'm pretty sure he's afraid enough of my Mom NOT to EVER call her again ... but that's ok, because she's calling his regular doc and I'm formulating my letter to the hospital board about negligent care.  And we are trying to just make it through the rest of the hospital stay, getting the care Granddad needs before we make EVERYONE mad.  But, I'm pretty furious.  Not only that there is a doctor treating patients he doesn't even assess .... but that assumptions are made about people based on a chart (oh, he's 88, he's probably going to have to go to rehab.  He's got COPD and CHF, so it'll take x days for this to resolve.  He's not independent ... not at his age ... and he probably doesn't even know I've not been in his room ...)  Yeh, assumptions that have all been wrong.  GOOOOO Granddad for telling the case manager that he's not going to rehab because Dr. Carter wrote it ... he hasn't even seen Dr. Carter!!!  YIPPEE!!!!!  How's that for an 88 ... almost 89 year old who's still in charge???

And I am still mad.  And rest assured this will not stop here.  And I will do my best to make sure Dr. Carter doesn't "treat" any more patients from the nurses station.  But, as I was having my quiet time today ... it hit me how often we do the same with God.  We also build our own conclusions around data in the chart instead of getting to know the real deal ... how much of what we know about God do we get from listening to someone else's story or reading someone else's book?  How often do we skip out on spending time with Him because we can "find out all we need to know" from this book, blog, or podcast.  And how often are our assumptions wrong because they are not based on what we've seen and heard, but on what we think might be.  The real deal is right here and we spend all our time sitting at the nurses station, settling for a sketch and a few facts instead of tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.

Yes, it's faster and easier to read a few lines in a chart.  But it's so wrong.  You will never know a person that way.

God calls us to a real and intimate relationship with Him ... not one that knows about Him ... one that KNOWS Him.  He's given us access to His throne ... unlimited access ... anytime ... anything ... He's never too busy or too tired ... never in too much of a hurry.  He's there and He wants to know us.

Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.   Hebrews 4:14-16