In Praise Of Nurses, The AF Rants, and Inherit The Wind

As some of you know, I recently spent quite a bit of time in the hospital (3+ weeks). It was classified as “an acute Life Threatening Event”. I knew it was bad, I didn’t realize it was that bad. My colon was bleeding, I lost a lot of blood. While I was in the hospital they gave me 13 units of blood.

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Throughout this whole ordeal I was moved around to a few different departments while they were figuring out exactly where all of the blood was coming from. I had an endoscopy, multiple colonoscopy's, they drew blood, made it radioactive and then put it back into my body so they could try and trace it to where I was bleeding. The radiologists also got involved and went in and checked around as well.

As a side note, yes I get a colonoscopy every 5 years. I had just received a note from my doctor that it was time again about a month before all of this happened. Colon cancer runs in my family, so every 5 years for the rest of my life I will probably have a colonoscopy. The good news through out all of this is, NO CANCER was found. I do have diverticulitis, so I am going to have to be careful as far as what I eat.

The surgeons eventually removed about a foot of my colon and put it back together, and that is when the bleeding finally stopped.

Throughout all of this blood loss my heart started going in to what they call A-Fib, and my blood pressure was all over the place. A cardiologist was brought in and I was given even more drugs.

My body was being pushed, and yes it was quite scary.

Which leads me to, In Praise Of Nurses. The doctors were great, but the nurses were amazing. They were so friendly, warm, and concerned. There were days when I was a mess, both mentally and physically. I had no control of my bowels at various points and it was a disgusting mess. All of the nurses took such good care of me. No negative comments even with all of the clean up. They would often say, “We’ve seen a lot worse.” My response was usually, “But not from me.” After a day or two in the ICU you lose all modesty.

Yes, they were “just doing their jobs”, but it was more than that. The were compassionate, always explaining things to me and often putting a hand on my shoulder or arm to reassure me that things were going to be okay. There were a couple of tests and procedures that were incredibly painful, during one particularly horrible stretch one nurse sat with me and held my hand while the others were doing the procedure. There were absolute moments of painful hell and there was always at least one nurse by my side, encouraging me and offering comfort.

As I was moved to a couple of different departments within the hospital, nurses I previously had would come by my room to check on me. They all told me how they kept hoping when they showed up for work that I would have been discharged because of what I had been going through. They were so sincere and caring that often after a few minutes of conversation we were both in tears. Obviously, it was very emotional.

I can’t imagine how I could have gotten through those three weeks without those amazing nurses.

Of course our health system has it’s faults and is certainly fucked up in many ways, but I have so much respect for the nurses and the other staff I interacted with for those weeks. Nothing ever seemed to shake them, I never saw a bad mood, and I truly felt like they were there for me.

In my mind, nurses and the other support staff are not paid nearly enough for what they do. If I could I would give them all raises. They are the most important part of the health care process.

This is my shout out to all nurses. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for taking such good care of me and getting me through all of this.

I have been home for just over 3 weeks now. My body has been compensating for all of this stress. I’m cold, my ears plug up, and my balance isn’t back to normal yet, but I’m getting there.

Being out of commission, sitting on my butt in the hospital watching the shit that’s been going on around this country, I decided to resurrect something I used to include in my blogs many years ago. It’s time again for...

From my film, Friday Night

THE ANGRY FILMMAKER RANTS

I am not afraid of people of color, immigrants, or any of the people I have been told I should fear most of my life.

Why?

Because the only people who have consistently screwed me over have been white guys, usually wearing suits. They are the problem! Look at the assholes who are fucking up our lives these days. It’s white guys, especially rich white guys.

These assholes have the means to solve a lot of problems in todays’ society, but they choose not to. They are more concerned with making money, having control, dividing people, scaring them, and generally making other people’s lives worse. All of the shit that’s going on is just a distraction from a bunch of rich white guys who have been buying up all of the media, and taking away our rights.

We don’t have a right versus left problem, it is rich versus everyone else.

I encourage you all to read, study history, and make your voices heard.

Which leads me to...

INHERIT THE WIND – (1960) Stanley Kramer’s amazing film that fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial as a means to discuss McCarthy era investigations on intellectual discourse.

Not allowing teachers to teach, banning books, banning ideas, and discussions, arresting people? Does this sound familiar?

A couple nights ago I came across this film on Kanopy. Kanopy has become my go-to when it comes to classic films. All of these other streaming services don’t show or even list so many great films from the past. I remember having a student who told me that no good films were made before 1975, which is such horse shit! I’m so tired of people thinking that their opinions, no matter how ignorant, should be taken as fact. Anyway...

If you are not familiar with Kanopy, it is available through most libraries and if you have a library card, it’s free.

The acting is first rate. Spencer Tracy, and Fredric March are amazing in the leads. Gene Kelly, Harry Morgan, Dick York, Donna Anderson, Noah Beery Jr., and Claude Akins are all fantastic as well.

Even though this is supposed to be about McCarthyism, you cannot watch this film and not draw parallels to the shit we’re going through right now. And we repeat this same crap over and over throughout history.

I could write about this film and draw comparisons for you, but what I would really recommend is that you watch the film. What you will get out of it as a viewer I think is more powerful. Hopefully.

I am so fucking tired of people who don’t read, and have no grasp of history, telling others what to think.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” - Issac Asimov

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.” - Walter Cronkite

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Don’t let the bastards get to you!

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