Share Your Emergency Room Experience

Yesterday, my daughter and I finally decided it was time to go to the hospital because our conditions weren't getting any better. We ended up in the Emergency Room at Duke Medical Center. I brought excerpts from my upcoming book, my cell phone and some writing materials to keep me occupied for what was sure to be a LONG wait.

I've blogged about going to Duke's ER before. Going there has never been pleasant. I always get the feeling there are never enough people on staff to handle the onslaught of people who need their care. Yesterday, one lady was complaining that she had been waiting for four hours and still hadn't been seen. Another woman claimed she had once come to the ER and waited 14 1/2 hours!

Maybe we looked really sick or the staff recognized me from previous visits because we were in an out of the ER in less than four hours---and on top of that---everyone was exceptionally nice and attentive. I'll be the first to tell you that has never been my experience in the past (11/23/07).

The attending nurse even commented on how some people had to wait up to eight hours just the day before so, in spite of the fact, that the ER was busy on the day we came, we got lucky this particular time.

So what has you ER experience been like? What do you think the overall problems ER staff members are faced with? How can they improve?

Men Do Suffer Through Menopause and Sometimes It's Funny

I'm trying to understand what the hoopla is over a so-called joke comedian Bernie Mac made about menopause during a fundraiser last week for democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Many of the media headlines read: The star of "The Bernie Mac Show" joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language.

His exact comment was: “I can’t take it. My house is so doggone cold all the time.” Men, like Mac, do suffer through menopause and sometimes they just have to laugh at it or they'll end up in divorce court.

So let's get real. What man in America doesn't have something to say about his wife in menopause? It's either too cold in the house, or she's acting like a B**** or if he chooses to ignore it, it might mean he has another chick on the side.

Furthermore, sexual infidelity and promiscuity are REAL ISSUES. Ask Lynne Spears mother whose 16-year-old daughter Jamie Lynn recently had a baby out of wedlock. Or what about CBS News Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Lara Logan, who cheated on her husband WITH TWO men (one married) while on assignment in the Middle East.

Granted, Bernie Mac is NOT one of my favorite comedians. He is crass and vulgar at times. Obama's people should've known that in advance and asked him to tone it down or not had him perform at all.

Once again, the media is grasping at straws to make a mountain out of a mohill. Let's stand up for the purity of America.

My mother used to say "the pot can't call the kettle black if they're on the same stove!"