Michael Shay's Hummingbirdminds

I was a Florida resident for just 18 days before I was rushed to the ER with septicemia. I am the family cook and grocery shopper. I barely ...

Most Americans, it seems, have been following the hunt for the murderer of United Healthcare exec Brian Thompson. But it’s not the manhunt t...

I am caught between two worlds. In one, I am at the beach or in a park or lunching with friends at Inlet Harbor. In the other, I tense u...

Aug. 18 was the last time I posted to my blog on my PC at my Cheyenne writing desk. Chris and I moved out of our house in Cheyenne on Aug. 2...

I returned home yesterday, Oct. 4. It was day 25 of my stay at Advent Health Daytona Beach. The fresh air was bracing, although the temp was...

We young orderlies, CNAs, techs, nurses fresh from graduation. Voices blared from loudspeakers: code blue ortho, code red ER, code pink nurs...

Jerry Lewis played a hospital orderly in “The Disorderly Orderly.” In it, he’s a bumbling idiot with a heart of gold, a type he’s played bef...

I’ve been recovering from heart surgery since Feb. 16. It was Valentine’s Day Week and it seemed like a good time for it. Heart surgery has ...

Ten years ago on these pages, I regaled my readers with stories of my heart attack. It was an exciting misadventure. Nobody in my family had...

Lorna of the luxurious brown hair. The first time I saw her. Not a streak of grey in it. I knew it wouldn't last because she's right...

My brother Tim the postman/father/grandfather is undergoing radiation treatments at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. The docs ...

On the one side, you have Trump and his narcissistic minions. On the other, you have nurses. I align myself with nurses. They are on the...

The five-year-old boy from New Hampshire didn't talk much. He held up his right hand as the nurse dressed his wounds and I stood by to a...

The certified nursing assistant (CNA) named Ashley pulls me out of my chair and leads me to the walker so I can get to the handicapped acces...

A question for my writer friends: Do odd things happen to you, or are you the odd thing? The answer is important. The world is odd, fil...

It's that time again. Christmas season. Or holiday season if you are a damn liberal like me who doesn't believe in saying "Me...

Back when I was a poet... I worked as an orderly in a county hospital. I took classes at the local community college. I walked or road my ...

The Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Telemetry Lab staffer called me Friday. She wanted to know how I was doing. I said "fine" but...

On Oct. 24, 1918, nurse Florence Green ("Mudder" to her grandchildren) received orders to go to Evac 8 on the Meuse-Argonne fron...