Alarm Fatigue

Sitting for weeks in a hospital, I can relate to this interesting article on hospital alarm fatigue. Too many alarms stress caregivers and patients. That's not good for anyone's health. And it defeats the purpose of an alarm. When everything sounds like a crisis, humans get numbed to it and real crisis can be missed. My friend Paul summed it up with this quote: "Nothing screams incompetence like an unheeded alarm." Paul's a smart guy, but I don't know if history can reward him as being the first to make that deep statement. I think he might have picked it up from the TV show, Futurama.

Fortunately all of my alarms here at Northwestern have been heeded. And really, there has been nothing that has happened to me here that could be considered as crisis worthy of alarm. They planned all contingencies ahead of time. So I can sit here comfortably bored, mindfully safe. It's been helpful that the nurses showed me how to mute noises on my infusion machine that sounded like alarms to me, but were merely signal noises. When my infusion finishes, I can hit a mute button and just call my nurse to say, "Hi, my infusion's done." Whether we're talking about patients or farm animals, staying calm is much better for healing. When alarms sound, humans become much like frightened, stressed animals. I think the medical equipment industry could learn a thing or two about stress reduction from Temple Grandin.

Beyond medical equipment alarm stress, the current U.S. healthcare system in general is not good at calm, thoughtful healing. What it is pretty good at is triage, scrambling to the patients in most-urgent need of rescue from crisis. That's how my MS health care was handled before I got here.

Finally, all the alarms with no benefits just pissed me off. Tired of being a cash cow for pharmaceutical companies, I channeled the anger of a stubborn bull who'd been cattle-prodded one too many times.  It was quiet rage that gave me the ability and resolve to finally say no and ignore ill-informed admonishments to be be terrified of HSCT. Anger is powerful motivational fuel, but it takes a toll and burns out fast. I got lucky that it worked for me. Had I failed to get here, I might have ended broken and bitter beside the road. What I did is no way to get healthcare. It shouldn't be that hard.

I have this hopeful vision that many more MS-ers will become aware of, and benefit from, HSCT treatment. But instead of going into death-throes animal rage to accomplish it as I did, they will be zen masters who simply turn off the crisis alarm and calmly move forward. They will know the reality, and need not fear.