What to pack
I promised to provide a list of what to pack for your medical tragedy, and I'm finally ready to do it. My list won't obviously be exhaustive, but it's mine and I'm happy with it.
When you decide to have a medical tragedy, you'll be doing a lot of telephone work, so my first items relate to that. You'll want:
1. Your home town phonebook.
2. Your work phonebook.
3. Your personal addressbook. I didn't think of this right away, and I didn't get to it right away either. So on Wednesday, I was calling close personal friends that had not yet heard the news. I just went through it page by page.
4. A cell phone and a charger. You can't always dial out on public phones around the hospital.
5. Pre-paid calling cards. Your cell phone won't always be able to get a good signal or have charged batteries. People were kind enough to give me a few of these and they have been just great.
Some other things I have found useful:
6. Scissors. For opening packages, cutting the elastic off of Linda's clothes, etc.
7. My clothes. Here's a hint. When people ask what clothes you need, tell them to "pack for a vacation." That way you get several changes of clothes, your shaving stuff and a toothbrush, etc. I managed to get everthing I need eventually, but if I had asked right in the first place it would have been smoother.
8. Hospital value card. This might not apply to every hospital, but at Boone you can get a discount card that gets you 20% off at the cafeteria and 10% off at the gift shop. It didn't cost to sign up.
9. A friend in town with a spare bedroom. Just because this is down on my list doesn't mean it hasn't been immensely valuable.
10. Acid free paper and good pens. You'll probably want to write some things down to last. Write on one side of the paper so it doesn't bleed through.
I promised to provide a list of what to pack for your medical tragedy, and I'm finally ready to do it. My list won't obviously be exhaustive, but it's mine and I'm happy with it.
When you decide to have a medical tragedy, you'll be doing a lot of telephone work, so my first items relate to that. You'll want:
1. Your home town phonebook.
2. Your work phonebook.
3. Your personal addressbook. I didn't think of this right away, and I didn't get to it right away either. So on Wednesday, I was calling close personal friends that had not yet heard the news. I just went through it page by page.
4. A cell phone and a charger. You can't always dial out on public phones around the hospital.
5. Pre-paid calling cards. Your cell phone won't always be able to get a good signal or have charged batteries. People were kind enough to give me a few of these and they have been just great.
Some other things I have found useful:
6. Scissors. For opening packages, cutting the elastic off of Linda's clothes, etc.
7. My clothes. Here's a hint. When people ask what clothes you need, tell them to "pack for a vacation." That way you get several changes of clothes, your shaving stuff and a toothbrush, etc. I managed to get everthing I need eventually, but if I had asked right in the first place it would have been smoother.
8. Hospital value card. This might not apply to every hospital, but at Boone you can get a discount card that gets you 20% off at the cafeteria and 10% off at the gift shop. It didn't cost to sign up.
9. A friend in town with a spare bedroom. Just because this is down on my list doesn't mean it hasn't been immensely valuable.
10. Acid free paper and good pens. You'll probably want to write some things down to last. Write on one side of the paper so it doesn't bleed through.
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