Body, Mind & Spirit: Please be kind and rewind

By Pat Larsen

For Capital Region Independent Media

No one likes roadblocks, detour signs, traffic slowdowns, or being told that we aren’t able to move forward due to our own actions or, worse yet, reactions to situations. Especially not me.

However, after I’ve gotten over myself and blanketed the air with a few words that I’d dare not put in print or say in front of anyone, I eventually  begin focusing on the deeper messages that my own resistance might be bringing to the forefront.

Let’s start with the issue at hand. Not the specifics but rather the opinion of those who were a witness to the issues and their offering of a subsequent opinion. Their opinion.

This is not to say that those who choose to express themselves to me are correct in their assessment. Maybe they are. Maybe they’re not looking at the whole picture when they choose to share their thoughts. 

What comes next is this. ME, taking the time to look in the mirror directly at myself and asking the question. The hard ones whereby I have to conclude that the inner resistance I’m feeling just might contain a bit of truth within OR that it just doesn’t. My own ego tends to get in the way. A digging in of my heels and my defiant nature rising from the depths proclaiming that I know better.

Maybe, just maybe, there is more to learn.

Resistance is pretty sneaky like that. 

So, what might some of those messages be within our own steadfast refusals to look at suggestions?

Starting with life and the ever-changing situations that present themselves as we age, I find that there’s the “way” I use to resolve a problem that always seemed to work. Or did it work?

If my way solved the issue then why does it still continue to come up over and over. 

Stubbornly yet subtly yielding, I agreed to see the opinions being offered and a possible way to solve my problem once and for all. 

I know none of this is making sense to anyone but me.

Maybe you get it. In the complexity of this world with never-ending options available to move forward from a problem, making a decision from a different direction is not something that I am finding so appealing as I get older and wiser. 

So, to answer the question that I posed…”what are the messages that resistance brings?”, let’s begin with slowing down a bit, not immediately rushing into a previous solution to fix the problem with an old set of worn out ideas.

Maybe a fresh set of eyes can see the issues at hand from a whole different direction and maybe another way might actually work better.

OR…might this fresh set of eyes be getting it entirely wrong and our experience and knowledge has stood the test of time and will again be the answers we seek?

It’s important to think this aspect through from all sides.

I’ve definitely learned to take a deep breath and to just be in gratitude for the opinions and to say so. Then, apply my problem, piece by piece to my old pattern of resolution, and add the newer suggestion and trust my instincts to decide what parts to apply.

Just maybe, we old dogs can learn some new tricks. If the reverse is true, then maybe it then becomes a teaching moment for us to share.

Pat Larsen is a fitness instructor at The Shamrock House in East Durham, Monday and Thursday mornings weekly. Please call 518 275-8686 for details. As a certified hypnotherapist, Pat serves Greene and Albany counties, providing services to seniors and Baby Boomers seeking to resolve issues regarding aging gracefully. Special programs are offered on this topic often. Please call for dates and times. 

By Pat Larsen

For Capital Region Independent Media

Under the category of knowledge is power, I offer this column in the hopes that not another single person has to ever deal with this situation in a health crisis or one like it.

This story is about what I have sarcastically begun to refer to as “the new model of patient care” in a post-pandemic, short-staffed world. I don’t have the answers either to how we even begin to resolve these dilemmas.

Regardless, I hope that by just reading about this potentially catastrophic health emergency, you can arm yourself with better preparation than we had. It all turned out fine. So that’s the important part… but wait, there’s more to the story that begs to be told.

Recently it became necessary to seek the immediate care of a cardiologist at the Cardio Clinic Unit affiliated with one of the major hospitals in our area. My cardio team was contacted by me via phone on the way and they immediately responded by voicemail that the clinic was the best place to get checked out. NOT the emergency room because of the incredibly long wait times associated with ERs at this time.

My situation was not life threatening but still of an emergency nature and so there was no need to call a local ambulance.

I was driven to the cardio clinic and was able to walk in with the assistance of my husband, albeit with some difficulty due to my limitations of movement having had a total knee replacement just three weeks prior. 

We entered the building and were directed to the sign-in desk where we would give my information, cover co-pays and state the nature of the visit. 

The truth is I was still within a 90-day window of being post-TKR surgery and was now having  irregular heart rhythm, which was of concern due to the possibility of a blood clot issue occurring. So the emergency was real and not to be ignored. 

Then THIS happened.

We were told that there was a two-and-a-half hour wait in the cardio clinic to be seen. If you know me or you follow me in my columns, you know I’m pretty calm and reasonable unless I get on a rant.

My husband looked at me and I at him and then looked back to the secretary and asked what I needed to do next. She repeated herself that it was too long of a wait to register me at this time? 

So, I re-explained what the nature of the emergency was and that I had been told by my CARDIO TEAM affiliated with this facility to get to it immediately. I also explained the complication of the ortho issue and the potential for a blood clot that could have a had catastrophic result to my life.

NO OFFER of a solution was given. Just a repeat of the clinic’s situation and the long wait time…period. Then, I saw a glimmer of hope when compassion seemed to take hold in the rational recesses of this secretary’s mind and she suggested that she’d call a nurse to the desk but not to expect that to actually happen because they were that busy. BUT, she said she’d call and try. 

Within maybe three minutes, by some miracle, an RN did indeed come to the front sign-in desk from a separate waiting area that was behind swinging doors at this facility. She took one look at me and told the secretary that she needed to get me inside the clinic as soon as possible.

THANK THE HEAVENS…maybe today was NOT my day to kick the proverbial bucket. 

Here’s the other kicker… we walked through those swinging doors. Past maybe 50 EMPTY seats and right into a care unit where several other techs and NP’s were cleaning up for the day.

There was absolutely NO ONE other than the staff in the clinic but me. I was  immediately cared for with EKGs and monitors and found to be OK despite the nature of the irregularities of my heart rhythm and within 30 minutes I was sent home with a prescription and a reassurance that coming down to the clinic was indeed a good thing. 

So what happened to the two-and-a-half hour wait time? Where were the other patients?

I’m doing absolutely fine. Of course, that’s what counts.

My worry is always that someone else might have just left without reassurances and being checked to be sure they were OK. I was kind of numb but not so much that I didn’t get that I HAD to be seen. My husband and I were perfectly OK if we had to wait our turn as long as we were in a place where if things went awry, I at least had a chance to have a staff member help me.

Are we now, as patients, being subjected to the poor training of those who are at the gate to our access to getting the help we need? What has happened to the standard of care in this area, state, country and world. Is the desperation of these corporate owners of our doctors willing to sacrifice our lives because there aren’t enough applicants to fill the positions?

It’s sickening to think THIS is what we’ve given up in this post-pandemic world. But that subject will have to wait until this true story settles in. Go ahead and share. I’ve deliberately left the vagueness that can apply to many.

And without question I answered the  “How’d we do?” survey that this clinic sent. Make sure you do the same. Maybe we can help things to change.

Pat Larsen lives in Greene County where she is a certified clinical hypnotherapist; teaches educational programs and fitness  classes to Baby Boomers and seniors at The Shamrock House mornings in East Durham. Please feel free to contact Pat at 518-275-8686.