Today's post is brought to you by my pre-dawn exercise delerium, and the number 7.

Alright, I think I'm done reading about hospital feng shui for the evening. I'm going to decompress, and then go to bed. But let's catch up first, no?

What's been going down in the world of Krash? Well, I got Red Sox tickets this weekend. Yeah, you heard me right, I got Sox tickets. To two games, even. One opening weekend (not opening day, opening weekend...a girl needs a Saturday to sleep off the beer and Fenway Frank combo), and one in May. I absolutely cannot wait. Pitchers and catchers report in 16 days, and this is what will get me through the rest of winter.

Now, those of you who know me know for a fact that I am a lazy gal. Don't get me wrong, I like to keep busy (you all know that too from my complete slack at sending prompt email responses) and be active, but I also fully appreciate the beauty of lying on the couch all day watching bad tv and napping. That is totally heaven to me. And I detest, I repeat DETEST, excercise. You have to trick me into it...like making it a game (I enjoy playing sports) or keeping it different each time. However, this morning I got up BEFORE THE SUN ROSE and went and worked out. And, of course, this (and my class last week) made me all philosophical.

"Why did you work out Kristy?" you ask. I'm so glad you're interested...read on: I got up and worked out this morning because my doctor asked me to. Not because she told me I had to, and not because my health depended on it, but because she asked me to. I'm on a medication called Celebrex, and recently there were two studies released about the use of Celebrex. One study showed that it increased a person's risk for heart diseasae. One study showed no such effects. So, results are inconclusive right now. As it turns out, Celebrex is the only drug we've found so far that keeps my arthritis in check, so I'm not keen to go off of it. However, I'm also not keen to have a heart attack. I mean, I joke about being a 27 year old trapped in an 87 year old body, but I don't really want it to happen for real. However, again, I don't like to exercise. Conundrum? Fortunately not for me. I like my doctors SO much that I'm willing to do the things they ask me to do. Get a flu shot? OK, I don't care so much for having a sore arm for four days and I'm convinced I'm not going to get the flu, but if you want me to I will. Exercise three times a week? Well, I don't like feeling like a gerbil on an exercise wheel, but if that's all that's available to me until the weather is more cooperative, and you want me to do it, alright. I'll even sacrifice my most favorite thing, sleep to do it.

"Now Kristy, why are you making such a big deal about this?" Ah, good question, dear readers. I'm making a big deal about this because it is a perfect example of what can happen when health care is run the right way. My doctors all talk to each other about my health, even though they're not in the same practice. And they all treat me with a great deal of respect, ask for my input, listen to my answers, and research all my questions thoroughly. I figure if someone is going to care that much about me, I should respect them right back and do as they ask. And that's the other thing: they ask. They respect the fact that I'm an adult, they give me the rational argument for their preferences, and they ask nicely for me to comply. And for all that I am more than willing to be a fully compliant patient (a rarity, take it from someone who works in health care).

But it gets bigger than that. Ah yes, there's more: this is where last week's class plays in. Actually, now that I think about it, all of this semester's information plays in. My class this spring is focusing on program administration...it's rather dry material; for example last week we read and discussed insurance and HMOs and managed care in general, and this week we're reading about constructing welcoming pediatric environments. I'm not as excited this semester to sit down and read, because until I wrote the second sentence of this paragraph, I felt it was information I wasn't going to use until much further down the road. I'd rather be reading about studies of the effects of play on children in pediatric settings, and other such fun things. But I digress.... The point is, our healthcare system is messed up. There's a lot of reasons for this, and surprisingly it's not all the insurance companies or politicians, if you can believe it. It's rather long and complicated, but suffice it to say that last week's class on managed care really got me thinking about how to improve our healthcare system. It's a tough call. Somebody loses no matter what you do. Free healthcare is not as easy as you'd think either. Yes, Canada has it. But their wait times are crazy long. And their people are less sick than we are: there's a reason people come from all over the world to cities like Boston and Houston and such to get their specialized medical care. But what if the people in Canada are healthier than us because their doctors take the time to sit down with them and ask questions about their lifestyle, what's going on with them personally...factors that most doctors in the US ignore? What if it's because they can practice more preventative medicine because they know their patients better? Yes, the wait time to see a doctor is longer, but maybe it's with good reason, and maybe it has great effects you didn't originally think about. Sit back for a second and think about the last time you saw a doctor and the visit with the MD him/herself took more than 4 minutes. How old were you? Before I moved to Boston, I was probably in middle school or younger. And that counts the times I saw all sorts of specialists in Florida for the arthritis and such. It makes a difference. My functioning has been top-notch for the most part since I've moved here, and I'm convinced it's the care my doctors provide. And the environmental studies we're reading this week are another example: if we just take the time to add small touches to our medical environments like arranging the furniture to promote opportunities for community interaction as well as areas for privacy, or adding more natural light and items from nature (plants, fish tanks, etc)...if we just take the time to think about what we could do to make the patient more comfortable, we might just be able to improve their condition before they even get any medicine in their body. (No, really, there have been studies done, folks. I've been reading them all night. Environment actually makes a huge difference in healing time.)

Anyway, I'm tired, and my brain is fried from the work I've been doing all weekend, so this might be a little incoherent. And yet again, I've managed to bring up a major issue and offer up no real solutions. I guess one thing this blog is teaching me is true respect for those who choose to go into politics. We really give them a hard time, and some of them deservedly so, but in the end, they choose to carry the weight of our needs on their shoulders and make some tough decisions. It's something I know I couldn't do...I'd be too fraught with guilt about the people I'd slighted, or I'd never be able to make a decision because I'd always be convinced there was a better way. So I try to change the world in my own small ways: by rambling on here and maybe forcing you to think about the issue more, discuss it with others, and maybe get involved...and I play with kids. Because, well, I'm going to get all Whitney Houston on you again, but I believe the children are our future, and if we make their lives better, they're going to thrive and grow, and perhaps one of them will grow up to fix the problems we couldn't.

In the meantime, I'm headed to bed. I have to get up before dawn tomorrow and work out, after all. =)