Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Life at Grady: Ready-ta-go
A version of the following post, by Kimberly Manning, FACP, first appeared on the blog Reflections of a Grady Doctor.
"You ready-ta-go, ain't ya?"
That's what people used to walk up to me and say, like every day, in the last four weeks of my pregnancies with both of my kids. It was this universal term that intimated that I was not only term but so term that I might deliver right there on the spot.
For the record, it's pretty unusual for anyone to approach me in Grady Hospital with phrases I've never heard at all. I mean, this is a hospital that cares for a large population of African-Americans from the southern United States. Let's be clear here: I'm African-American, my folks are from Alabama, and I attended both college and medical school down south. So I know these patients. They're my aunties and my uncles. My first cousins and my second cousins. Usually they don't surprise me with their terminology--but every now and then something catches me off my game. Or just amuses me. The "ready-ta-go" thing definitely did both.
(Click "more" button below to continue reading.)
"Good morning, gentlemen! Y'all doin' alright this mornin'?"
This would be a standard greeting I'd make to the handful of middle-aged men sitting in the "Smoking Area" outside the hospital on most mornings. The standard reply would almost always be, "Alright, Miss Lady!" or if they actually knew me from the ward or clinic it might be "We don't know nothin', Miss Manning!"
Now, let me quickly digress to address a few things that may have caused you to take pause.
"Smoking Area"--What?? Yes, there is a designated smoking area outside of our hospital. It's a small area with benches and standing ash receptacles, and people use them. I would say that this is an indigent care, public hospital in explaining it, but it has nothing to do with that. I think it comes down to the reality being that some people smoke. And rather than having them smoke near the front door flicking cigarette butts and ashes on the toe of somebody's child, our solution is the "Smoking Area."
"Miss Lady"--What?? Miss Lady is kind of like this term of endearment for young to youngish women that I often hear around Grady. Sometimes the person saying it is being fresh. Most times they're just being nice.
"We don't know nothin'!"-- Huh?? That's just a way to say, "Nothing's going on" or "It's just an ordinary day." If you're really savvy, you might greet someone you know by saying, "Hey there, sir, what you know good?" To which he might reply, "Awww, I don't know nothin'." This is equivalent to "What's new?" "Not much."
"Miss Manning"--What's up with that? At Grady Hospital, "Miss" is a term of endearment, even when you are a doctor. Yep. I said it. And am not offended by it in the least when I hear it.
...Okay. So when I was what felt like 12 months pregnant, I greet the dudes in the Smoking Area who collectively say: "You ready-ta-go, ain't ya?" I smile and just wave in return. Up the stairs, and into the hospital. Passing through the automatic doors where an elderly woman is buying a newspaper. She makes eye contact with me:
"Good morning, ma'am! You doin' alright today?" I say with my standard greeting complete with the southern twang that somehow inhabits my body the minute I enter Grady.
"I'm fine, thank you!" she replies with her wobbly voice and then adds, "You ready-ta-go, ain't ya?"
"Yes, ma'am!" I'd laugh. "Any day now!"
"Look like tha's a boy in there. You have a blessed day, doctor."
" 'Preciate you," I reply.
Down the hall, to the elevator, looking at my inpatient billing cards while waiting for the lift to arrive. Crowd forms at elevator, southern hospitality and pleasantries exchanged. Young woman, looks me up and down. "You ready-ta-go, ain't ya?" she says with a chuckle. I smile and nod.
"Tha's a boy, all day!" adds another woman. (Did I mention that every Grady patient, no matter what their age, could always accurately tell me the gender of my child just by looking at my belly? But that's a whole different story. . .)
I step off the elevator and two men are in the hall who look lost.
"Can I help y'all find something?"
"We lookin' for 5J."
"It's right behind you," I say with a smile, "Just push that button and somebody will let you in."
"Wooooo. You ready-ta-go, ain't ya?"
"Yes sir. One more week supposedly."
"Alright then, Miss Lady. 'Preciate you."
And so it went on. All day, every day until the moment I left for maternity leave. Finally, when I went into labor and it came time to push, all I could think in my head (which is probably not normal) is: "you ready-ta-go, ain't ya?" Indeed, I was.
Labels: community hospital, Life at Grady
posted by Jessica Berthold at
9:00 AM
Contact ACP Hospitalist
Send comments to ACP Hospitalist staff at acphospitalist@acponline.org.
Previous Posts
- Take two aspirin but don't call me when you really...
- An admission that inpatient care is needed
- More details that no one read.
- Talking about readmissions
- Life at Grady: Innocence Lost
- Medical slang: Zombie Case
- Medical news of the obvious
- We had freedom fries...and now, freedom donuts?
- Increased medical errors in July
- It pays to read the small print.
Blog log
Members of the American College of Physicians contribute posts from their own sites to ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist. Contributors include:
Albert Fuchs, MD
Albert Fuchs, MD, FACP,
graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles School of
Medicine, where he also did his internal medicine training.
Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Fuchs
spent three years as a full-time faculty member at UCLA School of
Medicine before opening his private practice in Beverly Hills in
2000.
David Katz, MD
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACP, is an internationally renowned
authority on nutrition, weight management, and the prevention of
chronic disease, and an internationally recognized leader in
integrative medicine and patient-centered care.
DrDialogue
Juliet K. Mavromatis, MD, FACP, provides a conversation about
health topics for patients and health professionals.
Dr. Mintz' Blog
Matthew Mintz, MD, FACP, has practiced internal medicine for more
than a decade and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at an
academic medical center on the East Coast. His time is split
between teaching medical students and residents, and caring for
patients.
Everything Health
Toni Brayer, MD, FACP, blogs about the rapid changes in science,
medicine, health and healing in the 21st century.
FutureDocs
Vineet Arora, MD, FACP, is Associate Program Director for the
Internal Medicine Residency and Assistant Dean of Scholarship &
Discovery at the Pritzker School of Medicine for the University of
Chicago. Her education and research focus is on resident duty
hours, patient handoffs, medical professionalism, and quality of
hospital care. She is also an academic hospitalist.
Glass
Hospital
John H. Schumann, MD, FACP, provides transparency on the workings
of medical practice and the complexities of hospital care,
illuminates the emotional and cognitive aspects of caregiving and
decision-making from the perspective of an active primary care
physician, and offers behind-the-scenes portraits of hospital
sanctums and the people who inhabit them.
Gut Check
Ryan Madanick, MD, ACP Member, is a gastroenterologist at the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and the Program
Director for the GI & Hepatology Fellowship Program. He
specializes in diseases of the esophagus, with a strong interest in
the diagnosis and treatment of patients who have
difficult-to-manage esophageal problems such as refractory GERD,
heartburn, and chest pain.
I'm dok
ACP Member Mike Aref, MD, PhD, ACP Member, is an academic
hospitalist with an interest in basic and clinical science and
education, with interests in noninvasive monitoring and diagnostic
testing using novel bedside imaging modalities, diagnostic
reasoning, medical informatics, new medical education modalities,
pre-code/code management, palliative care, patient-physician
communication, quality improvement, and quantitative biomedical
imaging.
Just Oncology
Richard Just, MD, ACP Member, has 36 years in clinical practice of hematology and medical oncology. His blog is a joint publication with Gregg Masters, MPH.
KevinMD
Kevin Pho, MD, ACP Member, offers one of the Web's definitive sites
for influential health commentary.
MD
Whistleblower
Michael Kirsch, MD, FACP, addresses the joys and challenges of
medical practice, including controversies in the doctor-patient
relationship, medical ethics and measuring medical quality. When
he's not writing, he's performing colonoscopies.
Medical
Lessons
Elaine Schattner, MD, ACP Member, shares her ideas on education,
ethics in medicine, health care news and culture. Her views on
medicine are informed by her past experiences in caring for
patients, as a researcher in cancer immunology, and as a patient
who's had breast cancer.
Prescriptions
David M. Sack, MD, FACP, practices general gastroenterology at a
small community hospital in Connecticut. His blog is a series of
musings on medicine, medical care, the health care system and
medical ethics, in no particular order.
Reflections
of a Grady Doctor
Kimberly Manning, MD, FACP, reflects on the personal side of being
a doctor in a community hospital in Atlanta.
Technology in (Medical) Education
Neil Mehta, MBBS, MS, FACP, is interested in use of technology in
education, social media and networking, practice management and
evidence-based medicine tools, personal information and knowledge
management.
White Coat Underground
Peter A. Lipson, MD, ACP Member, is a practicing internist and
teaching physician in Southeast Michigan. The blog, which has been
around in various forms since 2007, offers musings on the
intersection of science, medicine, and culture.
ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist also contribute to and draw upon content from Get Better Health, a network created by Val Jones, MD, to support and promote health care professional bloggers, provide insightful and trustworthy health commentary, and help to inform health policy makers about the clinician's point of view on health care reform, science, research and patient care.
Other blogs of note:
American
Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine
publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in
internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and
community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, MD, ACP
Member, associate program director at New York University Medical
Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents
and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news,
commentary and more.
db's Medical
Rants
Robert M. Centor, MD, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating
medicine and the health care system.
Interact
MD
Michael Benjamin, MD, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so
he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the
Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news
of the day.
PLoS
Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a
blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by an emergency
room physician.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home