{"id":24179,"date":"2022-06-06T13:07:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T20:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/?p=24179"},"modified":"2023-12-08T13:11:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T21:11:54","slug":"retired-newspaper-editor-sings-praises-of-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/news\/retired-newspaper-editor-sings-praises-of-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired Newspaper Editor Sings Praises of Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article\">\n\t<header class=\"header\">\n\t\t<span class=\"type\"><\/span>\t\t<h1>Retired Newspaper Editor Sings Praises of Surgery<\/h1>\t\t<time>June 6, 2022<\/time>\n\t<\/header>\n\t<div id=\"block_0b168c739f8927c3479d6569d5eaa988\" class=\"shs-block block-news-article entry-content\">\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n\n<p>A few days before Christmas, Albany surgeon <a href=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/patients-visitors\/find-a-doctor\/sweeny-peter-andrew-1861811770\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Andrew Sweeny, DO<\/a>, was checking on a patient before surgery when the patient pulled out a note he\u2019d sneaked into the prep room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe note said, \u2018wait, this is a Christmas gift to myself,\u2019\u201d said Graham Kislingbury. \u201cThere\u2019s one more thing I have to do before you knock me out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After getting the attention of Dr. Sweeny, a nurse and an anesthesiologist, Kislingbury belted out, \u201cHave Yourself a Merry Little Hernia Surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe did a little parody and that actually made my day,\u201d said Dr. Sweeny. \u201cIt\u2019s generally something my dad would do. I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Kislingbury, 68, a former newspaper editor who spends his retirement volunteering in the community, the timing of the surgery was important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His hernia was diagnosed more than a year ago, but he put it off primarily so he could accomplish his volunteering tasks, which include yard work at Albany\u2019s Jackson Street Youth Shelter and First Christian Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kislingbury recalled the pain his hernia gave him while doing yard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI called it Iggy,\u201d said Kislingbury of his inguinal hernia. \u201cI had the Iggy meter, some days we got up to a 10 as far as pain. And those days when it got really cranky, I\u2019d just lie down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inguinal hernias occur due to weakening of the muscles in the lower abdomen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Sweeny used Samaritan Albany General Hospital\u2019s da Vinci robot to place an index card\u2011sized piece of mesh to repair the hernia. A month later, Kislingbury was walking through the cemeteries south of the hospital, reflecting on the importance of having a hospital in the heart of Albany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am grateful for 36 years of living five blocks from the hospital,\u201d said Kislingbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In those three decades, Kislingbury had a few other visits for procedures and each time he brought a song to sing before he went under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI just love it when patients feel comfortable enough to be themselves and to have fun with something that is usually very anxiety producing,\u201d Dr. Sweeny said.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<aside>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Graham-patient-story-CO.jpg\" class=\"attachment-cta size-cta wp-post-image\" alt=\"Graham standing and looking into the distance.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Graham-patient-story-CO.jpg 360w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Graham-patient-story-CO-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Graham-patient-story-CO-120x100.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/figure>\t\t<\/aside>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Graham, a hernia patient, snuck a note into his room where his surgeon found it. Staff were treated to a jolly parody of a Christmas carol about his hernia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":11373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_shs_workflow_notes":"June 06, 2022","_shs_exclude_from_navigation":false,"_shs_promote_article_on_blogs":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"news-topics":[285],"news-types":[272],"services":[232],"specialty":[44],"class_list":["post-24179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","news-topics-patient-story","news-types-news","services-robotic-assisted-surgery","specialty-surgical-assistant"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24179"},{"taxonomy":"news-topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topics?post=24179"},{"taxonomy":"news-types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-types?post=24179"},{"taxonomy":"services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/services?post=24179"},{"taxonomy":"specialty","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/specialty?post=24179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}