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From: Frank McCoy <mccoyf@millcomm.com>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.frank.mccoy
Subject: Humans are gregarious creatures
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 21:04:41 -0600
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Humans are gregarious creatures
We don't really do as good alone as we do in packs; though some people
actually prefer being loners to the problems of getting along in a
group.
But the point that struck me last night (while being sick) was how
mucked-up we humans have made things with sleeping arrangements.
Look at almost all "primitive" societies, and families all sleep
pretty much in one room ... and usually all in a heap together like a
pack of dogs would. In our "sophisticated" society of today, we put
everybody in separate beds, in separate rooms ... often even
separating husbands and wives in this manner ... and we call that
progress.
Babies, instead of cuddling up to mothers and dads, being comforted
and finding easy access to food from Mom, are bundled off to lonely
cold cribs to cry the night away ... and that's considered HEALTHY?
Even at best, Mothers have to *get up in the middle of the night* to
change and feed a crying baby, which isn't all that healthy for the
mother, let alone leaving a tiny baby to shiver alone (or be smothered
in hot blankets alone) in a crib all by itself. Instead of having its
body temperature regulated by close contact with an adult, the child
has to brave nighttime heat and cold in solo distance, somewhat like a
Spartan child left to live or die in the outdoors.
I find that when I'm sick, have chills or fever, having another adult
(like, in particular, my wife) snuggled up next to me in bed, helps ME
handle the fever or chills FAR better than ever I do when forced to
sleep alone and lonely. Two people sharing a bed adjust their body
temperatures together, and (I think) get well faster when somebody
healthy is also sharing a bed. How much more-so must this be with
small children? Yet sharing a bed is the LAST thing we do with a sick
patient. Instead we isolate the person; making his/her body do ALL
the work of maintaining temperatures at the time when the body is at
its weakest and lacking the ability to do so.
Ruminating about this led me to propose a new invention for hospitals
to use: A Buddy-Bag.
Fill a large pillow-shaped plastic or rubber-fabric bag (use Water-Bed
materials) with water heated to 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit, with thermal
controls to heat or cool it to within a degree of that temperature
(using thermal Peltier-effect modules to maintain even heat) and
covered with a nice removable terry-cloth cover, for sick people to
snuggle up to.
The problem (of course) would be convincing any hospital to try such a
system, no matter how much sense it makes.
Feel free to use the idea without royalties, if anybody decides to
adopt the system. I hereby place it in the Public Domain, (12/28/04)
if somebody else already hasn't thought of it first.
With such a Buddy-Bag, a person could snuggle up and either cool off
or heat up (as needed) when having chills and fever. Not *quite* as
satisfactory as snuggling up to another adult, but it would quite
possibly help a sick person recover by simulating a more natural
method.
Just an idea ....
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