Here's my IV buddy. Carrie had bought him for me when I had the hysterectomy. He is the perfect size and thickness for resting my hand against. He is perfect for sleeping with when I am on my opposite side, so there is a pillow under my hand but not something so thick it makes my arm fall asleep.
He is perfect. First thing I asked Geoff to throw in the overnight bag for me.
Thank you forever Carrie for this little guy.
The medication they put me on comes in 5 doses, once a day. Got the Friday night bit taken care of late as mentioned in the last entry. I had the insomnia, got Saturday's dose around 3pm which was a far more reasonable time.
As everyone knows, there is a lot going on in hospitals. This entire floor was converted to single rooms, used to be two beds per room. It was very private (nice) and isolating (also nice).
I watched about 90 hours of North Woods Law (not exaggerating) because it was something I'd never seen before, and looking at all the New Hampshire places I'd been made me smile.
Up until Saturday I didn't have a lot of energy to communicate with people. At home I didn't feel like typing or talking. My sister was auntie 20 questions and got all up into information mode, which became just even more exhausting to me. No I don't know my O2. No I don't have a cough. No I .... ohmygosh leave me alone.
Once I got to the urgent care and then shipped to the hospital, she channeled that energy, thankfully, and took up the family helm. She used Facebook to not just communicate with my friends, but hers, an email list, and the Guster fan group. Which then turned into 900 emails/comments/questions. Everyone wanted to know about symptoms, about my Oxygen levels, was I coughing? Wheezing? Able to breathe okay? Too many requests for specific details. I had to waive off two friends who were just going bonkers with questions and I was not about to post specific answers to their questions on Facebook.
Yes I'm fine, I said.
To be honest I felt more like a Victorian dowager lady lounging around on the settee, in the room (seriously, room for 20 visitors and no visitors allowed) taking tea and talking about the poets while wearing our best up-do hair styles and our nicest paisley dresses.
I'm welcoming of the new company and introduce the ladies who had not yet met. Tea service and little sandwiches, perfect. And nothing tastes weird or off. And yes, Yeats, what is going on with that man?
Mornings started early, between 4am and 5am. Vitals and meds in pill form, and then I could order breakfast at 7 so I'd either be wide awake or try and snooze more. I was across from the nurse's station, a lot of chaos sometimes, a lot of alarms, but the vent above the bed blowing in the air conditioning was very loud so it drowned out a lot of things.
Getting that wee pre-breakfast snoozle was always nice.
Doctor visits and evaluations, wear the O2 monitor and walk around. That's where things got fun. Resting O2 was about 93% but when getting up to walk it would drop way below 90 and my pulse would shoot up to 140 from resting 74.
So not so good, Al. They instructed me that if I needed to go to the bathroom, call for the nurse to be there first (I didn't always because waiting to go pee or poop in my life can be a challenge). I napped a lot on Saturday, making up for that Friday night insomnia.
Food was okay - still couldn't taste much and was glad Doug packed some snacks because I was actually hungry at this point. Saltines and apples, a little granola, had a milk and 3 peanut butter containers left over from breakfast so I had a nice peanut butter apple snack with my granola in a bowl with the milk. The nurses were impressed with my snacking. We talked about my blood sugar, which was skyrocketing because of the meds, and timing food and snacks with blood screens. And I told them that the cafeteria needed to not send up ice cream to the diabetic patient even if it is a nice treat that fit in the X amount of carbs allowed.
Do not tease and tempt me with this tiny blue bunny chocolate ice cream hoodsie cup size container.
The nursing staff were very good. We had some fun. I always have fun in the hospital because I'm a weirdo. On Sunday morning my nurse was very nervous because she was going to get her vaccine for Covid, and I asked why she was nervous. "I just am, this is so unknown," she replied.
"You come in here every single day and work with patients who are dying, cannot breathe, I'd be more terrified to come in here to work than get the shot!"
She agreed and said something about how she needed "his strength" to get through.
"Do you pray?" I asked her.
"Yes, but it is hard right now, so hard."
"Stop moving, let's pray," I said. She was stunned and did that with me. Later she came back and said she felt so good going in for the shot, that she appreciated the prayer.
That night, 4 people died on our floor.
She came in around 8pm to set up my IV and was frazzled and apologetic, "I'm so sorry I left you a lot today," she said. But no, I said, I was going to buzz around 9 and ask about the IV but I could tell it was rough out there. It's noisy. You all are in it. I can wait. They can't.
"A 51 year old man told me "I am going home to Jesus, Miss Rosa. I'm going home to Jesus." And I told him to just stay here with me, and he could not."
She told me she hadn't eaten since the vaccine. She had to go do paperwork for the county and would have a snack. I didn't see her again during my stay but I'm thinking of her.
My doctor had ordered a second chest X-ray to see how things were. Nothing was getting worse, which is a good thing, but instead of sending me home after the third dose of the meds they wanted to keep me for the full ride of 5. Infectious diseases said that if the lungs were looking amazing they'd opt to end the treatment. I was okay with them keeping me and let's do all 5. Why not. Here's to Sunday and Monday night in bed.
The IV line they had put in back at Urgent Care on Friday morning had stopped working. She hooked me up to the medication that night and my arm started to swell. Poor Nurse Rosa, running around trying to get someone to come redo the IV. She found a woman to come up and she put in a nice fresh line, perfect. She went to do the last step and blood came shooting out all over so all 3 of us started to laugh. But then she stopped and was upset.
"Oh this is not funny," she gasps, "Please forgive me, please forgive me!"
But it was funny. It was funny to me. It was all okay, and just a little weirdness with the way the line went in and didn't flush right. But I told her there's nothing to forgive about, just a lot to be thankful for. We went back to laughing and the meds started flowing into the IV, and I gave thanks for the skill and knowledge of these amazing women.
Watched a lot of Football on Sunday night, hit the hay and was out cold by about 11:30.
Monday was a blur, check ins with the doctors on call, more good conversations with nurses. I don't think anyone died on Monday but I could be wrong. The chaplain's office called me Monday night right as I was going to watch Monday Night Football. Bhati and I had a great talk, "I came on Friday and I'm just now hearing from the Chaplains? What's up with that?" He sighed, "oh, so busy, Chris. So busy. We're making phone calls instead of coming to rooms because of Covid Protocols. We're only coming to rooms if someone needs an in person, you know. They are asking, or they are close."
I got it. We talked about swimming in this tank right now, about the holy spirit, and the faith many show, the faith they fear to show, the faith they lack.
"For me, I know what I believe as a Christian. That's religion. But Chaplaincy is about love, not about religion, so you have to know a lot about history and faith but more than everything you have to be full of compassion, empathy, love. No amount of religious teaching will fill that gap. People need love right now. And it may change their lives and outcomes."
He said "so where did you get your chaplaincy certification?" I laughed. "Oh no honey, I do technical support for a living. But it is a lot of the same principles. Love them, they need your help when they break the Content Management System."
We prayed together, he prayed for me, I prayed for him. He offered me a job. I told him that right now I needed to make tech support money but that a future opportunity would be welcome.
Tuesday was slated for discharge day, so I got up, packed and ready. Final dose of the IV administered at about noon. Ate lunch while it ran. Bag packed. Ready to go. So ready to go.
The big ready to go thing for me was the fact I wanted a shower. They couldn't allow me to shower because of the IV line and because everyone is at risk of falling and they don't have someone who can CNA there and help. I understood. But Jaysus, did I want a shower by about Sunday morning. Here we were on Tuesday, and I've got a hat on, a hoodie over it, and I asked the nurse if she could smell my armpits because I could not, but oh did I bet they were rank nasty.
Doug picked me up, we went towards the house and decided to go pick up my prescriptions from the clinic near the house. Unfortunately, they were sent to Gaithersburg, even though we ironed everything out and I had the electronic signature info handy to show they should be there. We opted to come home, and now here we find ourselves needing to go out and pick up the order now that it is all ironed out.
I do not wish to go out, but this needs must do. Doug and Geoff both still have the Covid. Doug is exceptionally cranky, so it is difficult being with him a bit. I thought he just needed food last night but his cranky pants are still on.
It could be worse, I guess. He did make a nice Christmas dinner for us last night, and it was lovely even though small and I couldn't taste a lot. Him just making that for us really touched my heart.
Alright. To the pharmacy. I think I have one other observational experience to round out this series of posts. Watch for that next update.
