An iPod a day keeps the doctor away

- by Joel Rodriguez Dizon

    

     In October last year, my mother underwent surgery to remove her appendix. she had been complaining of stomach pains for months but always dismissed it as "just gas". But finally, one evening, the pain became unbearable and would not stop She was barely conscious by the time I got her to the Saint Louis University hospital. Her admiitting  doctor scheduled her for surgey within two hours.

    The surgery went fine, even if the potential danger was dumbfounding. Her appendix had grown gangrenous and if the surgeon had not cut it out that evening, she would have burst it and risked succumbing to sepsis.

     There were weeks of post-operative visits to the doctor that followed. Although she was quite strong enough to walk on her own, hospital staff always insisted she rode a wheelchair when scooting around the hospital hallways.

    The long line of waiting patients annoyed her no end. We would get into the hospital an hour before the clinics actually opened, and we'd still be in line about lunchtime. There's only so much you could do to keep a 76-year old unbored. 

Enter 21st century technology---to the rescue! I gave her my iPod Classic and let her watch Evan Almighty with a pair of earphones. It was hilarious. Not the movie (not just the movie) but the way my mother became totally absorbed in the movie and let out loud guffaws, unawre that everyone else around her couldn't hear or see what she was watching.  I didn't have the heart to explain it to her--she was having too good a time. 

    Just then the doctor emerged from his clinic and called my Mom's name. It was her turn, but she couldn't hear the page over the PA system.  I could and so I had to walk up and apologize to the busy doctor.

     "Where's the patient--uh--where's your mom?" the doctor asked.

     I said, "Probably somewhere between the Congressional hearing and the dam breaking."   When the doctor looked at me totally bewildered, I pointed to my Mom on the wheelchair with the iPod. "She's winding up Evan Almighty," I explained.

     "Has she been laughing like that all this time?" the doctor asked.  I said yes.

     "You and your mom can go home. If she hasn't  ripped her stiches by now, I assure you she's fine!"

   

(My family's special appreciation goes to my Mom's nurse while she was confined  at the SLU Hospital--Jean Camille Navarro. This charming 20-year old  fourth year BSN student  of Saint Louis University in Baguio City has nursing in her pedigree--literally flowing in her veins. She comes from a brood of five children,  her eldest brother and sister (who are fraternal twins) are both registered nurses, and her younger brother after her is also a nursing student--or was until the poor fellow realized he'd rather be an engineering student buying new books every semester than inheriting nursing books handed down three times already.)

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