How I Spent My “Fall” Vacation – Episode 67

Episode 67 – January 5 – I ended off last night perfectly. After planning out my end of evening affairs, I neglected to fill up the water chamber for my Bipap machine. I hit the call button and rather than that constant pinging noise I had finally tuned out, it was a constant alarm sound. Two nurses were in my room in a flash. There are two outlets for the call button; one for the regular ping and one for the alarm. Apparently there is a circuit fault in my call box that allow the signal light go on when the cord so someone switched it over to the alarm button. Not such a good plan.

Putting on my braces is getting easier and easier. The one lesson I learned is immediately upon undoing a strap fold the Velcro piece back onto itself otherwise you end up with a tangled mess with both braces clinging to each other like they may be trying to breed. I find it is easier to get them lined up better with the knees by putting them on in while sitting on the edge of the bed and fastening the middle strap first. The only problem is they are fastened by holding the brace under the back of my knee while fastening the straps over the top therefore I end up defying gravity. (See Marla, I was able to slip that one in just for you. Taking them off is such a liberating feeling!

The tangling thing brings to mind another thing that puzzles me. How do the wires of my earbuds get so tangled up and knotted in the drawer when I roll them up and put them away carefully after using them. I am constantly untying knots in them. I guess if I can solve this mystery I will have the mystic knowledge to figure what happens to strings of Christmas lights when they are hidden away in the crawlspace between January and November.

Well, I spoke too soon about the pancakes, today they only brought me one about four inches in diameter and yes it even the hard edges that required power tools to cut.

Anne-Marie our day nurse today, so it’s the first day I actually have a nurse that works regularly on this floor. Similar to the sixth floor there’s not much going on here on weekends but because I can wander around and relax when I want to so it just feels better.

Yesterday, I ran into the floor social worker while out walking and she was concerned because she knew I was one of the few on this floor that was of working age. I told her I was okay with both EI and my pensions and it made realize once again that I was blessed.

Being here has made me appreciate the small things in life every new thing I re-learn to do is a small victory. It also drilled home that even here on this floors there are patients worse off  than me including my roomie, Dale who  has so much further to go before he can walk again.

Even the woman, Charmaine, cleaning the rooms down here is much better to deal with. You can actually have a conversation with her.

The Crown Prince came into loaded up with a couple of bags of clothes and other goodies. So now I can discard the shirt and shorts I’ve been living in for the last three days. The orange shirt was the one I was wearing when they hauled me in here on Halloween. And he brought a grooming item I haven’t used in since 2005, a comb. My hair has been cut short since that time and I was able to slap a little gel get that unnatural natural look. It’s now overgrown and I’m getting that sheepdog look. My apologies to all you guys out there that haven’t used a comb for that long and more and will never need one again.

Let’s face it; I am at the age where I make old guy noises when I exert myself. You know those grunts and groans that you make when you stand up or move around. These noises actually make nurses’ ears perk up. I groaned a little shifting on the bed and Anne-Marie who was helping Dale on the other side of the curtain immediately asked if I was okay. The funny thing is I had the same reaction when Dale had made the same sort of noise. I attribute these grunts and groans to the same reasons karate experts give a yell before breaking a board or the noise that Maria Sharapova makes while returning a serve.

Grabbed a few of Pam’s goodies and an orange wolfed down my little blue pill and called it a night.

To be continued...