{"id":72459,"date":"2025-12-31T16:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=72459"},"modified":"2025-12-31T16:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:12:08","slug":"the-smell-of-hospitals-in-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2025\/12\/31\/the-smell-of-hospitals-in-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"The smell of hospitals in winter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When they sent my wife home from the hospital back in October, they put us on a low-sodium diet, just to be on the safe side. Her blood pressure was higher than they liked and they weren\u2019t sure if it was actually that high or if it was just elevated due to the pain from the botched dental work that had caused the infection that had required a week of IV antibiotics. When in doubt, doctors like to tell you to cut back on the salt. That\u2019s generally the healthiest advice.<\/p>\n

And but so last weekend, after she fainted and couldn\u2019t quite get a hold of her equilibrium, we wound up back in the emergency room where a blood test found she had extremely low sodium. The ER nurse said it was the lowest she\u2019d ever seen. The PA just said, \u201cHoly s\u2013t, that\u2019s really low.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"It turns out sodium isn\u2019t like the other electrolyte crashes she\u2019s had where they can just squeeze a bag of magnesium or potassium into her arm and then send her home. Sodium has to be restored slowly so as to avoid [long list of potential scary bad outcomes that I mostly tuned out because they sounded scary and bad]. And so they told us, last Monday night, that she\u2019d be there in the hospital for the next three or four days, even though days three and four of that were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

This was not where we wanted to be on those days, but when you hear yourself complaining about that, saying things like \u201cPeople should be home with their families on Christmas,\u201d you can\u2019t help but realize that you\u2019re saying that surrounded by lots of very kind and capable people working there who do not get to be home with their families on Christmas because they\u2019re there taking care of you and of dozens of other people with even bigger problems, many of whom would not just not be going home for Christmas, but would not be going home at all. And that puts things in perspective.<\/p>\n

And also we weren\u2019t alone in there.<\/p>\n

Our older daughter came in to show us the new ring on her left hand \u2014 she\u2019s engaged! That\u2019s a happy exclamation point there because this is unambiguously happy news. Not every engagement is unambiguously happy, but she found herself a keeper and our future son-in-law is someone who loves and respects her and treats her right.<\/p>\n

Our younger daughter also visited, along with her long-term boyfriend, who seemed a bit relieved when I reminded him that her sister\u2019s engagement buys him time. (After all, you wouldn\u2019t want to look like you were stepping on her sister\u2019s big moment, would you?)<\/p>\n

Oh, and Santa came by. Our friend Jason is the semi-official town Santa and rides in the fire truck passing out candy to children on Christmas Eve every year. It took him a while to get in and out of the hospital when he came to visit us wearing the suit. The hospital doesn\u2019t have a pediatric ward, but he still wound up stopping in almost every room because it turns out that even most adults stuck in the hospital on Christmas Eve are happy to get a visit from Santa Claus himself.<\/p>\n

We got discharged late in the afternoon on Christmas Day. This time they put us on a high-sodium diet, which seems strange. \u201cHeart healthy\u201d low-sodium chicken stock? No way! We\u2019re sticking with the good stuff \u2014 doctor\u2019s orders.<\/p>\n

This means we\u2019re also allowed \u2014 ordered<\/em>, really \u2014 to enjoy Santa\u2019s barbecue. (Jason owns and operates a fine BBQ joint just up the street from my wife\u2019s salon. If you\u2019re ever out on the Main Line, and hungry, check it out.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

We were also instructed to monitor her sodium levels, which is frustrating since there\u2019s no simple at-home method for doing that. Instead you get a list of vague symptoms to watch out for \u2014 fatigue, confusion, aches, unease, anxiety, tension \u2014 most of which also seem like just a general description of being in your 50s. It\u2019s also complicated because the symptoms of low sodium are quite similar to the symptoms of worrying that you might again have low sodium.<\/p>\n

On the positive side, her doctors are confident that the GI surgery she had at the start of the year was a complete success. The string of electrolyte crashes she\u2019s had since then might\u2019ve been a sign of something wrong with that, but they think it\u2019s unrelated.<\/p>\n

Alas, that also means they\u2019re still not sure why this keeps happening, or if it will happen again. (One odd running gag throughout all of these hospital visits is the string of reports from the nephrologist, who always comes across as overly eager to find some kidney problem at the root of this and then always seems deflated when he reports back that her kidneys are functioning perfectly. He always looks like he thinks we\u2019re deliberately snubbing his involvement. Sorry to disappoint you again Mr. Nephrologist.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, her sodium was very low and now it\u2019s not, and they sent us home assuring us that she should be just fine, probably. Almost certainly. And she just needs to get some rest and take it easy and don\u2019t worry about anything. Unless she feels dizzy again, in which case we should drop everything and rush her back in there without hesitation because her life may depend on that.\u00a0 But otherwise, don\u2019t worry.<\/p>\n

This time of year I usually wind up listening to Counting Crows\u2019 \u201cLong December\u201d<\/a> at least once or twice. That\u2019s where the title for this post comes from, a line I can relate to these days \u201cThe smell of hospitals in winter \/ And the feeling that it\u2019s all a lot of oysters but no pearl.\u201d But then there\u2019s also this, \u201cThere\u2019s reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s true for us. We\u2019re not just being irrationally<\/em> hopeful \u2014 we have reasons<\/em> to believe we have a better year ahead. Granted, that\u2019s partly because it\u2019s been not just a long December, but a long year, and after such a long year it\u2019s hard not to imagine that next year is bound to be a little bit better. And because this long year has forced us to understand that we need to let go of some things we\u2019ve been struggling to keep. I read something somewhere that said \u201cTest everything; hold on to the good.\u201d Some of what we\u2019ve been holding onto won\u2019t survive the testing, but what we\u2019ll be left with is still very good.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a wedding to plan. (!)<\/p>\n

Spending most of last week in the hospital derailed my usual Christmas Eve posting traditions here* \u2014 that Annie Lamott advent essay<\/a> and \u201cFairytale of New York\u201d and the Brokeback shepherds abiding in the field as the angel tells them good news for all people means all<\/em> people. I post those every year because I need to see them and remember them myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t make it out alone,\u201d Shane sings to Kirsty. \u201cGod has set up a tent among us and will help us work together on our stuff. And this will only happen over time,\u201d Father Tom says to Anne. These are things I need to remember because they are reasons to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last.<\/p>\n

So anyway, to make up for the lack of that Christmas Eve post, and because it\u2019s still Christmas, here\u2019s \u201cFairytale,\u201d as performed at Shane McGowan\u2019s funeral, in church, with laughter and dancing.<\/p>\n