The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-17
WHY PATIENTS ARE HURRIED
 FROM HOSPITALS
DOCTORS FEAR HOSPITAL HABIT WHICH MEANS IMAGINARY
 ACHES.

Our friend lies at deaths door. For days, weeks, perhaps, we scarce can breathe for fear of what mag be. Nothing is grudged that may spare the dear one to us.
 If ever we had beliefs in power beyond. 1t is resurrected and forget full of our desserts, we plead for the life we feel we cannot do without.
 Nothing matters, we think, if only he will live.
 The day comes when we know he will live.
 There is a day or two more for us to get accustomed to the blessedness of the lifted shadow.
 Then comes an hour when we find that things do matter, after all. Our friend is' convalescent. alas! we'll nigh unendurable.
 he or she is favored in disposition, there are moments when we are tempted to wonder at our importun- ateness. The 'proverbial sign of con- valecence is something of strain on affection. The might have been is blurred by. the '.is."" .,,
 Like many another belief, ''cross- cepted as synonymous. We look up- on ourselves as selfish brutes if even for a minute we find it trying to remember and to endure. "No wonder he is cross,'' we say; '.thnki how ter ribly ill he has been!"
 Yet conValescence should not be a period of snapping or fretting on one side and of tongue biting on the other Generally there is something wrong either with the. patient or nurse that can be remedied if both turn intro sDective.
 Getting we'll is neveEsa pleasant pro- cess, but it can be made more plea sant if one determines not to force the issue. Impatience is the secret of more than half the crossness that has given the convaleScent bad name. He won't take time to get we l and when time insists upon it's rights the invalid does not take it gracious ly.
 It may be hard for her to realize when work is piling up, and perhaps bills likewise, that speed is not over doing. Each forgetting of this exhaustion, perhaps backsets and cer- tain crossness.
 Sometimes the 'convalescent suffers less from overdoing than from under doing. If there be no reason for spec ial effort, it is all too easy to sink into a kind of querulous invalidism 1HIS III lIlduy CdSSS IdS D6COIQG ic, for lack of frmness upon the part of nurse or doctor to say You are well! Get out and be about your buSiness!'
 A famous surgeon, when asked why he made a point of hustling his pa tients out of the hospital when they could well afford to stay longer, re- piled:
 They get the hospital habit if they stay too long. When person is. well, he is well, and pampering after that means backSets or imaginary aches It is better to make surplus enort than not enough.''
 Nurses have much to answer for the convalescent crossness. Great fright finds hard to keep uL with. Reaction brings crossness to nurses as we'll as to invalid, which is felt even though suppressed.
 Sometimes friends being tired out with nursing think they should be slated for change of occupation long before the patient is ready to shift for herself. The invalid fees the grudging service and either makes eff forts beyond her strength or scolds at lack of attention, according as she is built.
 Again, the scared friends feel that one so near the grave can never make such swift return, so they harry the poor convalescent with needless pre- cautions Who wouldn't be cross to be kept on gruels and chided for each movement when feeling able to dine on the fatted calf and walk miles?
 To be an endurable conva escent one who makes getting well a burden nei- ther to herself or her friends takes will power, but it pays. Slow and sure cut out grumbles, cultivate pa tience and your reputation as a good recoverer mounts high.
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