Let’s Talk Murals In DC

Please join us to discuss “Capital Colors”

Saturday, Sept. 14
Site: Tenley-Friendship Library, 4450 Wisconsin Ave., NW Washington, DC

Time: 3:00-5:00 pm

DC muralists step up to offer interpretation and insight on a panel discussing public art in upper northwest Washington. Presentations showcase diverse styles and themes in a basket of color stretching from Dupont Circle (ToyTheater, Peter Waddel, 2012) 

up Connecticut Avenue (73 Cents, Regina Holliday, 2009) 

to Takoma Park (From a Model to a Rainbow, Sam Gilliam and Steve Frietch , 2011). 

Caitlin Carroll previews her documentary film on the murals of DC.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

In 1997 Perry Frank, Ph.D., initiated a project to document and showcase the outdoor murals created throughout the city beginning in the early 1970s. With a team of associates and advisors, she has photographed the murals; conducted oral histories of the artists and sponsors; authored text explaining the art; led mural tours; and organized public programs. In 2010 she created a mural website, which currently displays 35 of the city’s greatest pieces (www.dcmurals.info). Dr. Frank is president of her own small business, American Dreams & Associates, Inc. The project is partially funded by the Humanities Council of Washington, DC, and the DC Commission on the Arts and the Humanities.    

The Writing on the Wall

I have not posted recently and that is partly due to a great deal of art I have been doing with the children of Northwest DC. I love to work with children and to see the pure art they produce. It is such and honor. I am also working on a book and that has taken up a lot of my time to write. That book is 73 cents. It compares my childhood of abuse to the Fred's experience of being a patient while I experienced being his caregiver.

As I was flying to Memphis to present a speech before Methodist Healthcare, I wrote a poem that I thought I should share with you.

The Writing on the Wall

When I was only six years old, I drew upon the wall.

So sad, so small and all alone, I smote my cares on stone.

The other children swarmed and skipped

Like ants, they’d come and go.

I stood silent, chalk in hand and wrote upon the wall.

The teachers would pass me by and talk amongst themselves.

The children laughed and ran and played

And left me to myself. So, I would draw, and sculpt and scratch

The art would sooth my soul.

I left the best of me as powder on a wall.

At seven years, I learned that walls are hollow things.

That fathers beat and children greet whips, with tears and screams

That gentle hearts can’t help but bow before the rage.

Those walls give way to fists and boots, while drywall cracks with age.

I wrote my sorrow on page and dropped it in the wall,

Hoping it would speak for me,

If I could speak no more.

Seven years old, I might be and slow and sad and small,

But even I could read the writing on the wall.

At seven years and thirty, I’d find the wall again.

I’d remember in my sorrow that bricks could be your friends.

That cinderblocks and stones can calm

That paint can make amends,

So, I painted all my grief out and smeared it on a wall,

And the children watched in wonder,

And a world would hear my song.

Sometimes within our sorrow, sometimes in grief and rage,

We can write our testament with gigabytes and paint.

When was only six years old, I drew upon the wall,

So sad, so small and all alone, I smote my cares on stone.

But I no longer paint alone.

For others hear the call.

Thank God each night my friends log on

And read the writing on my wall.

For more background related to this post, see "Rescue Me".

update

This has been a busy week on the medical advocacy front. Our story is being floated around several news agencies, and it is just matter of who would like to report it first. The first mural will be placed in Pumpernickels Deli on Connecticut Avenue around the 5400 block. I will be determining the size this weekend, and it should go up next week.

I continue to search for more walls for murals. I also will need more patients who are willing to come forward with their charts. Each mural will represent a person. I would like the actual information and vitals. The name of the individual can be used, or if privacy is desired I can write "Jane" or "John Doe". Let me know if you or a loved one would like to be a patient image.

I am trying through some of my contacts to talk to the folks in Congress who are helping shape the new health care agenda. The litany of things that went wrong with my husband's care takes pages and pages to list.

On a side note, the EMT transport crew and I spoke during my husband's transfer for radiation. He shared his contempt of the ER department of the hospital we were in from 3-25-09 through 4-22-09. He said they leave patients out in halls, lose their information, and generally don't care. The EMT/Firefighter said he would rather leave a patient at any other hospital in this part of Maryland.

I will post again soon. -Regina Holliday

We will fight the good fight. Regina's USA medical advocacy 2009

Most of you are are aware that my husband, after two months of fruitless doctor visits and two trips to two ER's, was diagnosed with stage IV kidney cancer on Friday March 27, 2009. We plunged into the nightmare that is modern medical care in the USA. I found out I needed to be with my husband constantly to make sure he received even basic care. We were going to be released to home or institutional hospice after a month of only palliative treatment. We fought for a transfer to another hospital for a second opinion. We are now getting treatment. This has been a horrible experience.

The more I talk to other people the more I hear the same story. "The doctor did not listen." "The nurse did not read the chart." "The hospital kicked us out because our insurance was running out." It goes on and on. I ask all these wonderful people what they did to right this injustice, and the response is the same. "I was too tired." "It was too hard." "I was so sad." "They just got away with with treating us this way."

This has to stop. This is not right.

Why do we have more transparency in special education law then in medical care? Why do we have more access to information on a box of Cheerios then on a medical chart? Why isn't there a medical counterpart of the Freedom of Information Act?

People tell me just concentrate on your husband, your family. Too many people have quietly done that. Too many wonderful fathers, mothers and children are gone. Too many graves have flowers on them. I will fight. I will not stop. I will not be silenced.

Today I had an epiphany. You might have seen my mural work on the side of the American City Diner. I painted all those famous stars from the 30's through the 50's about six years ago. I also painted the mural of the children reading at Child's Play. I painted the St. Jude's Hospital Thanks and Giving mural on the old Hects Building about five years ago. I would like to do a new mural series. I want to do a Medical Advocacy series. I am doing a design based on the food packaging Nutrition Facts label. Instead of Nutrition Facts it will be Medical Facts.

I want do a simple anatomy drawing that highlights the patients' illness. To the side of this will be an easy to reference list of all pertinent info. This will be done in such a way to mimic a nutrition label. I think this will be very eye-catching. I want senators and congressmen, bus drivers, and waitresses to drive by this, and I want this kind of clarity and transparency for themselves.

Where do you come in? I need walls. I would prefer them white, primed and ready for mural work. And I want these murals be in the busiest areas of Washington, DC.

I may be only a mother, a wife, a sales girl, a teacher, an artist, and a caregiver, but I will effect change. I will give all my talent, my abilities, my energy, and my belief to helping us all.

Someday you will not have to fear a trip to the hospital. You will know you will be cared for. No wife or nor husband will have to fight the silent fight for the one they love. I will stand up. They will take notice. I will never give up.

Please forward to this to anyone you think could help.

Welcome to my new Medical Advocacy Blog

Hello, everyone. You might have heard of my fight for medical advocacy, medical transparency, patients' rights, and my proposed Medical Facts mural project in Washington, DC. Check here for updates, look for me on Facebook, spread the word, fight the fight; we will never give up!

Bellow is my first letter of advocacy on April 29, 2009 sent to 1,000 people by email (hospital names where we stayed have been removed :

Dear Friends and Fellow Fighters,

The following is our horrible account of Fred's health care prior to +++ and while admitted to that hospital. If you think there is no way you can help me in getting +++ to change their policies or fix a very broken health care system, do not read any further. Please do not talk to Fred about this as he does not wish to relive the experiences of the past few months. 

I am asking for your help. If I have emailed you, You are either a fighter or placed in a situation where I think you could help. I will be writing the physician's board about this, but I am afraid that path may be far to slow to effect real change. I have been told by a very lovely lawyer that you can't have a mal-practice case when you have Kidney cancer because delayed diagnosis doesn't work in this case as you are going to die with this type of cancer. I really appreciate a straight shooter like that. I also did not mention any names in this brief as I do not wish to be accused of slander.

Back in January, Fred started complaining of rib pain. He went to **** for X-Rays. He had a broken rib..from coughing. We got pain meds from his primary care physician. In Feb. severe back pain began. We got more pain meds, muscle relaxants, and laxatives. The pain did not stop we got more pain meds and more laxatives. We went to +++ for more X-rays in March. We were sent home with more pain meds. I went to the next appoint and told the Doctor I was concerned about his kidneys. She said it could not be his kidney's as he had back pain. I demanded an MRI. We got an MRI to check for a pinched nerve. There was a shadow on the MRI. The primary care Doctor scheduled an appointment with an oncologist for the next morning.

Most of you are aware of the very bad news we received on March 27th. My husband was told he had 9 cm malignant tumor in his Kidney that had metastasized throughout his body. He was told this by his oncologist while alone. I rushed to the hospital. Fred was in despair. 

I spent the next several days trying to get a straight answer from the Oncologist /Internist. I was not given prognosis or diagnosis for days. I researched this cancer by myself on the Internet. I went to the websites of cutting edge hospitals. I kept getting the same answer. The way Fred's doctors were describing this cancer it was metastatic renal cell carcinoma in other words: Kidney Cancer Stage IV. This disease has a 5% survival rate at this stage. The doctors would not tell me how long we had. When I pressed them by saying, "Would 2 weeks to 5 years be reasonable?" The internest said yes. 

The oncologist in charge of my husband went away for a long weekend and was not available for days afterward. The oncologist seemed to avoid me when I got back. He did not return my calls. He even complained to my husband that "if little Miss A-type personality wants to talk to me she she come talk to me herself." This comment made Fred anxious. He thought if we made waves the care would get even worse. The oncologist routinely referred to me as the "wife." He never called me by name. He rarely made eye-contact. He would spend only minutes with me or my husband. The internist seemed to being trying to make up for this lack by calling every hospital he could to find someone willing to do surgery on Fred. He said he spent an "hour and a half calling NIH, John Hopkins, and Washington Hospital Center." He told me he was taking this case PERSONALY. He said he saw himself in my husband. They were the same age. They both had two kids. The youngest was three. I began to worry that the internist had lost all objectivity in the case.

On the nursing front, Fred's bedding was not changed for three days untill I changed it. Fred was admitted in a wheel chair. He could barely walk. They provided no walker the entire time we there. He was told to lean/put all his weight on his rolling IV tower (This is against Fall prevention guidline at most hospitals.) I helped Fred to the bathroom untill Fred could no longer walk. I did my best to change him with no training from the nursing staff when he became bed-ridden. I bought Desitin to help with the result of infrequent changes of bedding. 

I mentioned my concern about needing a way to urinate.(A distended Blader was mentioned on the MRI of 3/25/09, the Bone scan of 3/28/09, on nurses notes on 4-10-09. The radialogist that saw Fred on 4-10-09 said the bladder was dangerously distended. She said she would call the oncologist. A nurse tried to do a Folley and was unable due to lack of experience. A urologist did not come till the next day 4-11-09. His report said he would come back to check on Folley. He never came back. In the four weeks we only saw th urologist twice.

We went to 10 off site radiation sessions. We were never told before beginning radiation that we would need ambulance transport. The first transport the ambulance shoved Fred's metastised hip causing extreme pain. On the third or fourth transport the tech droped his side of the gurney. The tech was fired. Fred was moved 20 times from bed to gurney with a pathologic break to the hip. 

They kept telling us they were trying to line up surgery. The first thing you need to do in Kidney cancer is remove the Kidney. On Saturday morning 4-18-09 The oncologist came in our room. He told us he was going to send us home. It would be pallative care from now on. This is called being sent home to home hospice. He stayed about 3 minutes with us. Fred and I cried. Fred told me now could start making waves. 

I had to wait till Monday due to the fact you can't get anything done in hospitals on a weekend. On Monday I replaced the primary care physician who never called or came to the hospital in the four weeks we were there. My primary agreed to take the case. He worked with @@@ to get them to accept us. I worked on calling the oncology practice directly to get them to accept us. I worked with the Blue Cross/ Blue Sheild Case worker to arrange transfer. (After two days of dealing with +++ she was crying on phone to me.) It took three days, Neither doctor from +++ helped in this process. On 4-21-09 the oncologist came to our room and told us, "so you are being transfered to @@@?". I said, "Yes, we would like a second opinion." He said "No hospital is going to do surgery on you." I asked what had happened to the ortho consult we had been waiting 5 days for? He said "You are being transfered you are not getting any ortho consult." Then he left. He upset Fred so. I told the customer relations person from +++ I wanted him barred from the room the next day. 

We did not get to leave untill evening 4-22-09. When we arrived we found out all the info for transfer had not been sent to @@@. Fred was without pain meds for 5 hours due to lack of paperwork upon transfer. The next day I had to go back to +++ to get the info that had not been sent with transfer. The nurses at @@@ pointed out that Fred had an unlabeled litocain patch and Fentynal patch. The Doctors determined he had a pathologic break and scheduled surgery.

Things are so much better at @@@. We have met daily with a wonderful oncologist. We have seen the urologist, cardiologist, great nurses, a wonderful social worker. We are so happy to be at @@@They are going to do the Kidney removal Surgery. 

I still want to do something about +++. No one should go through what we went through. I will talk to anyone. I will go before congress. If you can help me to change this system so this does not happen to anyone else, let me know. It is hard enough to hear you are most likely dying without going through this hell. The system must be changed. 

Thanks for your Help, 

Regina Holliday

(Miss Regina)

(Reggie)

(The really nice lady at Child's Play)