New Chapter

There is a wonderfully maddening regularity to be found in hospital routines.  The medical teams have a process that works.  They have no need to tinker with it each day.  Each day is about executing the plan.  They do not need to question the protocols and procedures.  Each instruction was developed and implemented with care.  The role of the team member is to follow the instruction unless there is significant new data that the team should be aware of.  No individual heroes are recruited.  Hospital medicine is teamwork, community, and following the plan.
As simple and straightforward as each routine might be, it is a foreign language to the patient!  I am not sure how I would have reacted to being coached in advance, however the discovery process was not always easy.  In my case, here are the parameters I discovered.  Blood pressure, oxygen, and pulse check every six hours.  Medicines come on a regular six-hour schedule that is sometimes four for unusual medicines and occasionally an odd hour off cycle for the odd dose.  Drips are under the ultimate control of one member of the team, no matter how many doctors are involved.  It is important for the patient to always be compliant, no matter how inconsistent any of the above is applied at anytime of the day.
With one exception (minor I still think), I was a compliant patient.  I tried to follow the rules.  I made an effort to go with the flow.  I looked at Peter's reaction to a new chapter, how on “the next morning he got up and went with them.  Some of his friends from Joppa went along.”  (Acts 10.23)  I look to follow the same approach.
Even as I look back, I do not understand the logic of it all.  I would note that I think there is logic hidden in each routine.  Someone has thought about it!  They occasionally forget about the patient, yet I would be the last one to say the routines were haphazard.  I admit that I am better for them. 
Trust community.