As many of you already know, our oldest daughter won her gymnastics national championships this summer. In August, she started receiveing responses to her emails from universities all over the country - Ohio State, Utah, and Yale to name a few. Unfortunately about ten days ago, she broke two of the bones in her hand and now requires surgery (plates and screws). She is very positive and will not let this setback get her down. The doctors say she will be doing cartwheels in no time.
Through this unfortunate occurrence we learned a lot about our local, small town hospital. Being a very active and athletic family, I am surprised that we do not spend a lot more time in the emergency room. In fact and upon arriving at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hosptial ER, we discovered that our daughter was not even in the hospital records. After 16 years of competitive gymnastics, this trip was her first to any hospital, and it is a miracle that she was not on a frequent flyer program.
Last Friday, I picked up our daughter from gymnastics (busted hand and all) and took her to the emergency room. We were greeted at the check-in counter by the mother of one of Lilly's friends who referred to Lilly as "our national champ." In a relatively busy emergency room on a Friday evening, the nurses were incredibily attentive. The ER doctors had wonderful bedside manner and were very thorough even taking me back to a computer terminal to show me our daughter's hand and walked me through the repairs that would likely be needed. The administrator who accepted payment was incredibly helpful helping us navigate through a mess called Obamacare (see below). I was throroughly impressed and proud of our local hosptial.
A few days later, swelling had increased so much that we had to go back to the ER. We also found out that Vicodin does not agree with our daughter's system. A wonderful nurse carefully and gently replaced the splint - all the while comforting our daughter as she had a minor meltdown about her sports injury. The physician's assitant who remembered our daughter's name from four days before prescribed a different pain medication. With the comforting from the nurse and with a conversation with the physician's assistant, we are convinced the hospital staff had a lot to do with helping our daughter cope with this injury in a positive manner. While the employees at the hospital did not have to take the time to counsel our daughter on sports injuries, we are deeply grateful for their counseling. Like most children, it is sometimes difficult to convince them of the positives in a situation. In children's minds, we are only their parents and have to behave in a certain way and say certain things. It certainly helps having others (in this case experienced medical professionals) support our children in such a positive manner. Again, we are deeply grateful.
On a side note, my wife called ten hand specialist from Yuba City to Folsom. Not a single specialist would initially accept our insurance - Obamacare - on which we were forced because my wife works for Congress. My wife cried nearly all day after calling the hand specialists. While being listed as a provider by our insurance company, we discovered that the physicians were added to the list of providers without their consent. Finally and after receiving telephone calls from the hosptial, a physician agreed to perform our daughter's surgery. Again, we are deeply grateful for Sierra Nevada Memorial Hosptial and their outstanding service. We cannot thank you enough for your dedication to our child.
Sometimes in this small town (as with every small town in which we have lived) residents complain about the local hospital. We are of the solid opinion that such criticisms of our local hospital are misplaced. Our hospital took a little girl who was broken both physically and mentally and turned her around. We are forever in your debt. Thank you Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital from the very bottom of our hearts.
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