#24

My sister comes to see me and brings along some movies I can watch on my computer.   While we’re talking the physiotherapist comes in and advises that I have to do some stairs with her just to show that I am able to move and function at home.  We walk to the stairwell and I hold the railing, brace myself, and go up 5 steps, turn around and come back down.  She seems happy with my mobility and that makes me smile. There it is, more success!

I enjoy having the room to myself and spread the time between watching a few minutes of a movie and walking with ever increasing agility and mobility. With no one in the bed next to me I’m free to open up the privacy curtains and look out over the lake.  It’s such a great view from up here. I can see sail boards, kites, boats and joggers. 

I have a student nurse for the evening and she tries to flush my I.V. site. As soon as she starts the fluid I get an intense pain in my hand.  She decides that it’s blocked, but leaves it in my hand anyway.  Is that a wise decision on her part?  I realize that this is a teaching hospital, but maybe the students should have more supervision.  My hand hurts, a lot, and she left the blocked tubing in my vein.  At this moment I don't have a lot of confidence in her choice.  I'll follow it up with another nurse tomorrow.

  Things get a bit rougher later that night.  I get a new roommate who is suffering with diarrhea and multiple post-op abscesses.  The poor woman has been through a lot of problems lately and calls for the nurse all night long.  No one gets much sleep.

Saturday morning during one of my sojourns I meet a woman who is carefully making her way along the hall.  As we chat, she tells me that she had a resection done on Tuesday afternoon.  That’s the same surgery as mine. I’ve met a kindred spirit, of sorts.  She seems to be having a hard time with her steps so I offer my arm. “Come on girl, we can do this together!”  I feel bad for her in that she seems to be suffering more than I am. At the same time, I feel fantastic knowing that even though my operation was a day later, I’m healing much faster.