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| Daryl and some old guy with beard |
If you include my stay in Emergency, this the
sixth room in this hospital I’ve slept in over these two months.
Although I feel for anyone that was stuck in
another Port Mann Bridge fiasco this morning, I get this smug look every time I
hear about something going wrong on that billion dollar boondoggle. I’m so glad
my tax dollars went to something important and not wasted on health or
education. Besides if you on your to
work it really doesn’t matter if you’re stuck in traffic. It’s only important
if you’re on your way home.
I hoped this wasn’t going to an omen but breakfast
came and there was a banana on my tray. The food service woman recognized me
and grabbed the banana and took it away. She knew! I checked the menu card and
it was supposed to cantaloupe cubes.
After breakfast, I got dressed and pulled on my
braces, grabbed my walker and flew solo around the unit. In my journey I ran
into Leanne, the head physio on the unit and she told me that McConkey had at
least authorized unlocking the hinges on the braces today. I really wish that
guy would leave patient care to caregivers .
My morning nurse is Luanne who was called in for
half a day because of a nursing shortage. I had overheard her in the hallway
saying that she had not worked since August. From the looks of her she’s
probably been retired for several years. There is no excuse for constant
staffing shortages; this shows that the organization is poorly managed. Perhaps
if you started with more staff they wouldn’t be so overworked and burned out.
While writing this and looking out the window, I
realized that I can see the peaks of The Lions from the edge of my bed. If it
wasn’t for another of those ugly condominium towers going up I’d be able to see
the whole slope.
Another small victory this morning, I was able to
wash my face and even better shave in a sink standing in front in front of a
mirror.
Leanne came in around 10:00 and unlocked my braces
and we started a new phase in my therapy. We experimented a bit in the hall
with walker and then we went downstairs to main physio department via
wheelchair to progress a little further. Leanne should know better than to ask
me if I want to do more. I want to do everything! We started working on the
parallel bars working on weight shifting progressing to lifting one knee and
finally a simulated stair. I jumped through all of the hoops again so Leanne’s
is going to talk to McConkey about removing the braces sooner than later.
My new roommate is Mona. She thought she shock me
by telling me that she already been in the hospital with a disc repair for two
and a half weeks. I win again! She is having severe pain problems so she can
only either lie down or stand up and she can’t sit. I turned around and saw her
standing in the doorway and looked down at her feet. Anyone care to guess what
she was wearing? Oh that one was too easy! I’ll have to compose a few more
difficult questions for the final exam.
It’s great to actually lie back on the bed for a
bit of the afternoon when you have to option not to.
After a good rest I decided it was time for a
walk. Okay, I lied I needed to use the bathroom but I figured if I was going
through the trouble of tying myself up I may get some walking in. When I came
out of the room, Martin, a co-worker was waiting for me so he walked around the
unit with me and then we sat down in the dining room and chatted about a few
things included a couple of union related that I had some details on and I gave
him the answers he needed. While talking with Martin, Leanne came by and asked
if the equipment in the physio department downstairs was free would I be
interested in doing a little work today. Again, well duh! It turned out that
the department was almost empty so she brought my wheelchair and we put Martin
to work pushing my chair to the elevator.
By the elevator on the fifth floor there is an
interesting double door with windows that leads to nowhere except a large drop
to the roof.
Down in the physio we did a short review of what
we did in the morning to make sure I hadn’t stiffened up the knees.
I got back upstairs and laid back on the bed. No
sooner had I begun to relax and a woman comes in and said “Hi Mr. Donnelly, I’m
Brenda from the Cardiac Care Unit”. Okay, at that point I was pretty sure I was
going to be shipped downstairs because that introduction almost put me there.
She was just there filling in as my afternoon nurse. Phewww!!!
This afternoon, I received another surprise
visitor, Daryl, my grade 5 teacher. Apparently I still had some outstanding
homework that hadn’t been turned in. Darn, I thought it wasn’t due for another
week. He was on his way home from snow
shoeing on Seymour. He still looks great and a lot younger than some of his
other students I’ve run into over the years. Thanks, Daryl! It’s always a
pleasure seeing you!
Katha is back as my night nurse; at least they are
fully staffed on nights. I heard the charge nurse scrambling to fill spots for
dayshift tomorrow. This is not the way to run anything let alone a hospital.
To be continued...
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