Regions Hospital

This will be short. It is being done on my phone. This entry comes from a bed in Regions Hospital in Saint Paul, though as I publish it, I have arrived home and shared a chicken pot pie Thanksgiving Dinner with Charlene.

Charlene and I were self-quarantined because we had spent a few minutes with a woman who later was diagnosed with COVID. Tuesday morning, I came down with several symptoms that could have been COVID, so Charlene called the Care Line. They said I should go to the Emergency Room. The ER very efficiently did a COVID test, a CAT scan, a chest Xray, an EKG and several other tests to conclude that I am COVID free and that I have diverticulitis. The turnaround on the COVID scan was less than two hours! The new diagnosis led to my admission and to two overnights. They wanted me to have IV antibiotics and to watch me for 24 hours after they switched to pills. That was this morning.

All that was to say that we both love Regions Hospital. I have been in hospitals in Port au Prince, Haiti; Miami, FL; Lagos, Nigeria and St Paul MN. Regions is by far the absolute best. Everyone here is very patient, very friendly, and very competent. (Though the one in Lagos did save my life.) Do not ask about the famed Jackson Memorial in Miami. Ugh! 

Charlene worked at Regions for awhile before it was bought by Health Partners. At the time it was a county hospital named Ramsey, named for the county. She worked as the unit clerk (read: the communications hub) of the X-Ray department while #2 son, Mark, ran all over the building(s) working as the local expert on their current computer system. 

We all have fond memories of Regions, formerly known as Ramsey.