Connections

Martijn & dear friend & fellow philosopher Wijnand van Lieshout, at home, Maastricht, Tuesday, November 13, 2007.







This is Silvie, our favorite home nurse from the Groenekruis (Green Cross) Domicura agency, at home, Maastricht, Tuesday, November 13, 2007.

It is a cold, rainy autumn day but brightened by necessary connections. Each day the home nursing team, run by a non-profit organization named Groenekruis Domicura, sends nurses to check Martijn's healing colostomy wound and to change and help him to learn to change the stoma bag, as it is called in Dutch. They have also been responsible for emptying and monitoring the lymph drain, measuring Martijn's output and logging it twice a day. The latter duty has been hard won. The home care nurses are not all trained at a high professional level. While our experience has been that to the person each 'nurse' (male and female) has been a kind and willing caregiver, the home care system itself is fraught with problems. This is not to complain, but rather to note the reality. Martijn's lymph drain is not unique, however his condition is. So while home care has trained nurses to work with such systems, here they ONLY are sent for breast cancer patients. For the past weeks Martijn, our general practitioner, Dr. Bom, and his surgeon, Dr. Keymeulen, have agitated to have the nurses qualified with this drainage system sent to our home with no success. The rules are that these trained nurses are uniquely for breast cancer patients. That's what I call not simply inflexible, but also simply stupid. So, for weeks Martijn himself has made countless calls to Groenekruis complaining that we had to train each new nurse (and you'd be shocked at how many different ones come rather than having an assigned nurse). At this point we're simply hoping that the drain comes out this coming Thursday, but the situation illuminates larger administrative issues with home care system. Still, as with Sylvie, on an individual basis we have liked and respected each caregiver and in general, I'm grateful that there is such a subsidized service.

As Martijn's condition improves it is visits from very dear old friends, like Wijnand, that mark milestones. Today Wijnand traveled from his home near Tilburg to spend and entire afternoon and evening. These two old friends share many memories and a kindred appreciation for philosophy. It is really heartwarming to observe them together.

And my dear friend, and former husband, Bob Ingram, reconnected me today to my Philadelphia roots. He mailed me two videos, both produced by Max L. Rabb. "Rittenhouse Square" is a documentary about one of my favorite Philly pocket parks. I spent good portions of my university days simply hanging out in this square. Now, thanks to another old friend, Barbara Craig, the square is where I stay whenever I visit Philly since her condo sits above this Philadelphia landmark. The second documentary is entitled "Strut", a story of the one, the only Philadelphia Mummers and their famous New Year's Day parade. Now I realize why I relate so easily and readily to Maastricht's Carnival - it's the Mummers redux! Anyway, with my newly region free 'hacked' dvd players I'm in for some good viewing.

So, our journey continues with professional and personal connections that link and nurture us on Martijn's road to recovery.