Monday 6 July 2015

Here's something that has nothing at all to do with bikes or riding them!

For anyone who doesn't already know, I'm in Boston at the moment with Sheila who has been here for medical treatment and surgery at Brigham & Womens Hospital. This has been a successful experience thus far and on Friday, July 3rd she was advised by her surgeons that she would be discharged from hospital on the Fourth of July. This news immediately filled both of us with feelings of great patriotism even though neither of us is an American. Little did we understand the process of being discharged from a top drawer American medical institution!
If you're ever in hospital in Bermuda you should know that the biggest challenge you face once the physician handling your case discharges you is that the various members of his support squad immediately forget that you exist. You're then compelled to keep pressing the Call button or sending attending family members to search for them in an effort to remind them that you're still there and would like to go home. This can take most of the day or, if there's a shift change during this time, perhaps into the next day. 
At BWH the wait can be lengthy but the time is filled with visits from all sorts of nice people representing various post-surgical services. In Sheila's case, she had very thorough examinations by the departments of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. In each case she answered many of the same questions plus went for several pleasant walks all around the ward and up and down stairs. All of these tests were passed with flying colours....we thought we'd be out the door in seconds! 
We then discovered that's not exactly how it works. All of these kind folk then have to write reports which they then must submit to the poor surgical resident whose unfortunate lot it was to be working on the country's most important summer holiday. Only then would we be "signed" out. After that, all the discharge papers and prescriptions needed to be assembled with the nurse-in-charge finally giving us a complete debrief followed by a question and answer period. To put things into perspective, the discharge process began around 10.30 a.m. and we walked out of the ward at 6.20 p.m.
Now was my chance to actually play a useful role in the proceedings...or so I thought. Sheila and I took the elevator from the tenth floor to the lobby of the mostly-deserted hospital. The plan was to take a taxi back to Cambridge Street but I reasoned that it would be easier to fill the prescriptions we needed at the CVS pharmacy about two blocks away than to try to go out later in the evening and pick them up. Feeling quite pleased with myself at coming up with this clever strategy I parked Sheila in a comfortable chaise, armed her with her smartphone and set off on the quick side-trip to CVS. 
The pharmacy itself was easily located and was also open. I was beginning to think I was on a bit of a roll until I walked up to the shuttered prescription counter and read a small printed note which said the dispensing side was closed and that to fill any prescriptions I should take myself off to the CVS dispensary at Boston Children's Hospital which was a three minute walk away. 
After briefly panicking and thinking of trying to find the Walgreen's somewhere near the subway stop I'd got off earlier in the day and a healthy stroll from where I was, I walked out of the shopping center and round the corner to find the Children's Hospital staring me in the face. I was back on that roll again!
I picked my way through the yellow tape guiding pedestrians through the labyrinth of re-modelling being done to the hospital's front entrance and approached the Information desk. Security at this hospital is a step up from BWH. My identification was scanned and I was given my very own visitor's pass which was to be clipped to my clothing. I was then directed to a pair of security guards, one of whom accompanied me on the key-only elevator to the second floor where CVS was located. I was impressed to say the least and would feel confident that if I had a child being treated at BCH he or she would be most unlikely to be abducted.
Once in CVS the pharmacist was very helpful, assured me that my Rx card would be honoured and asked me to take a seat for twenty minutes while he sorted the prescriptions. While I was sitting there looking at pharmacist-of-the-month photos on the walls and flipping through various pharmaceutical leaflets, a man came in towing behind him a boy of about four years who had the worst hacking cough I have ever heard....believe me, this kid was in the right place! All I could think was that I needed to keep a wide margin between him and myself. A bit of a heated discussion ensued between the pharmacist and the child's father over payment and I started to worry that this might drag on well into the evening. However, it was sorted out quickly and they mercifully left the premises instead of sitting down to wait with me for their prescription to be filled and infecting me with whatever dreadful malady the poor waif was suffering from.
Once in possession of the required drugs, I then followed a reverse process back through security to extricate myself from the building and with this done, determined by frenzied text that Sheila had not got up and wandered off. The rest of the return trip to BWH was uneventful and Sheila was very understanding as she knows well my propensity for losing any sense of direction at all when in a city. Once reunited, we were soon in a cab and on our way to the condo in Cambridge :)


Sunday 5 July 2015

Cycle Cellar's new face

The bike shop was dealt an untimely blow when we discovered in June that we had to make an unscheduled visit to Boston for medical treatment for Sheila. This effectively meant that the shop had to be closed for however long the Boston trip would last.
Just when things were looking really bleak my good friend Kelly Sullivan stepped forward and has agreed to open the shop for business on Saturdays. Kelly has had lots of experience as a rider over the years and I was able to give her a mini-crash course on how the shop operates. Her skills are mostly in the sales area so there will be no service in our absence.
Kelly has already had a positive impact on Cycle Cellar. She brings fresh views and a can-do outlook to the little shop. The positive comments are starting to roll in  and we are so happy to have her looking after things!