LUMPECTOMY - THE SEQUEL . . . Symptoms -- What hospitals could do

NOTE TO ARCHITECTS:
 Saturday night, too tired too take a shower or do a load of wash, I read some more of The Shape of Green, by Lance Hosey.

Here's a quote about patients and symptoms:

". . . at one Pennsylvania hospital, patients with garden views went home nearly a day earlier than those facing a brick wall. . . . So the quality of light, movement, and patterns must be important.  Yet. . . environmental psychologist Judith Heerwagen . . .and others show that even large photographs of natural scenes. . . lowering heart rate and blood pressure among stressed patients."

Also:  "A Carnegie Mellon study linked seated views of windows to a 20 percent drop in 'sick building syndrome' symptoms, including fatigue, neck and back pain, eye strain, headaches and irritability."   If only architects read these studies and persuaded hospitals to do the math.

In the Cancer Center radiation treatment room, as I mentioned recently, the overhead light shines through panels painted with flowers.   There is a good painting of nature in the waiting room, but I wasn't in there long enough to lower my blood pressure Friday.

 The exam rooms where we wait to see the doctors and hear the news are often where we need a nature view; but usually the only chairs have their backs to the window.   Then add the full-color drawings of horrible diseases, and feel your blood pressure soar.

Let's not pretend that hospitals and medical buildings can't remodel to make windows to healing views more possible.

You know I'm going to talk again and again about this.  And don't get me started about that garden accessible only through the administrator's office. . .