...open your notebooks and we will begin today’s
lesson...
Episode 18 – November 17 – Getting to sleep last
night was a little more difficult, Art was acting up and yelling. Our new
roommate, Jim was getting his first taste of life in 621.
Sergio decided that he should wake me up at 6:30
to check my glucose levels. The good thing at least was my reading was 5.9.
Yay!!
I tried to go back to sleep but the early morning
vampire had to come and grab a snack from me before the sun was fully up. This
time she claimed it was to check my B12 levels.
Right after Vampirella left, Dr. Chow, the on call
doctor dropped on Dr. Haaf’s request. Obviously she hadn’t read my chart
because the first thing she asked me is if I was walking around much. Ummm...no!
She was supposed to be there to check on my possible urinary tract infection
and without lab results there wasn’t much that could be done.
Last night the breakfast fairy sort of came by.
She shuffled into the room walked to the window and then walked out down the
hall. I saw her walk by again, look at the room and then disappear again.
Needless to say there was gruel on the tray today. At least there was a little
scoop of scrambled eggish stuff with my slice of toast. Fellie had talked to
the dietician and got her to include some cranberry juice each morning.
However, what they actually brought was cranberry cocktail which is one step
away from red Kool-Aid. Even most cranberry juice you buy is only a small
portion of cranberry. It’s mostly apple and grape juice but at least it is
juice. Recently studies have been on cranberry juice and the effects in aiding
the urinary tract are minimal but at best it won’t cause a problem.
It turns out that the new guy on the ward is Jim
McFarlane, former head of the BCTF. I’m sure several of you teachers will
remember him. I don’t know what he’s in for but hospitals are like prisons, you
don’t ask. If they volunteer the information fine but sometimes it’s good to be
kept in the dark. (I found out later it was for a knee replacement.)
I have a new day nurse today, Catherine. She seems
quite good and efficient however she almost seems she want to be a doctor. She
is a bit too thorough.
People have asked me about how I can deal with the
boredom of lying in bed. To tell you the truth at this point in time I don’t
get bored. Besides having several things to do like my writing and reading, my
energy levels are so low that these things take a lot out of me and I have to
lie back and even nap to re-energize. By the time boredom kicks in it is the
end of the day.
One of the ways I was able to pass my time today
was cheering my Notre Dame Fighting Irish walk all over Wake Forest and I was
able to do it for free from a legitimate site. Hopefully I’ll be this lucky for
Lions playoff game tomorrow. The Irish are now within a whisker of playing for
the national championship.
The Crown Prince dropped in just as the game was
ending. Acting upon my request he brought up with him some lip balm because my
lips were drying out and cracking from the hot room. He also brought up a new
nail care kit and if you have to ask why you don’t know me. Truthfully, I only
asked him to buy a pair of clippers because my fingernails were getting too
long; the rest of the items were a bonus.
Speaking of the heat in this room, Bryan kept
looking for a thermostat but not to turn it down but to make sure it wasn’t a
system designed by his company. Ever vigilant, that’s my boy.
We had an interesting discussion about several
news items, the Hostess shut down and we decided to scrap our idea of investing
in a grow op and go into the business of black market Twinkies. Bryan also experienced
what I have I to deal with all day; listening to nurses in very loud voices
speaking to old, nearly deaf, mostly delusional old men about their body
functions and the corrective measures they were going to take. This while he
was trying to decide what he was going to do about dinner. I believe he put off
his decision for an hour or two.
While Bryan was there a delivery came for me. It
was a fruit basket from CUPE 1004. Anyone care to guess what the top two items
were? Steve, didn’t you tell them about the bananas? Lol!!
Dinner was another tasteless treat, meatish balls;
very similar to the Salisbury steak the other day, only spherical.
Art was particularly delusional today climbing out
of bed and falling on the floor twice and causing a general alarm amongst the
nursing staff. The strange thing is that immediately after the last incident he
had a very lucid conversation with Jim about farming in Saskatchewan. After
about five minutes however he lapsed into his normal state.
Fellie was my night nurse and while checking my
vitals confirmed a minor trend. My oxygen absorption levels were lower than
normal. This is due to my shallow breathing while lying in bed and I have to work
on breathing deeper.
After doing a final check on the NCAA football scores
and confirming that both Kansas State and Oregon lost, I drifted off to sleep
happily knowing that my Fighting Irish would be number one in all the polls
tomorrow.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment