So here I am, sitting in a hospital room with Don by my side, now what?
Lying on the end of the bed was the infamous hospital gown. Was I really going
to have to wear that thing? My nurse came in and said she was going to insert
my IV needle. Since I didn’t bring pajamas with me, only a pair of shorts I
normally wear to bed, I grabbed the gown, went into the bath-
room and
proceeded to put it on. For those who have never worn one, it is quite a
contraption. It has snaps on the sleeves so you can open it up to go over the
IV tubes. It has ties around the back of your neck which are to short to be
useful and impossible to tie. There are more ties around the back of your waste
which are absolutely impossible to see, feel or tie! Once again I had to lean
on my son in law to make this contraption at least bearable. Note to self; have
someone bring pajamas first on the list. One of the bright spots to this ordeal
was the nurses. The nurse on duty when I arrived, Maria, was definitely a gift
from God. God blessed me first by having Don there and once again by having
just the right nurse during this scary time. She was funny, she was very
proficient and she cared. She explained everything to me, she told me what to
watch for; she said that if the other nurses didn’t do certain things I was
tell them, “Maria said”. It turns out she was well respected by the other
nurses and when I did say, “Maria said”, they listened. Now it was time to
insert the IV. She had me lay back on the bed with my right arm at my side. She
raised the bed to a height that she could work and prepared my arm for the
needle. I’m not sure what Don was thinking but he was very quiet. I was
thinking, here we go again since I have had more IV’s than I ever wanted. Sometimes
they get the vein right away and sometimes they have to poke around. Which one
was this going to be? PTL, there was no poking around, in the vein, taped down
and ready for the infusions. She told me I needed to be out of there in four
days or they would have to remove the needle and insert another since it can
only stay in that long. I told her that would definitely be my goal, four days
was way to long to be there.
Alright now what? Don and I talked
and watched some TV and wondered what was going to happen next. I don’t
remember the exact timing but it was shortly after I arrived; I got my first
visitor, Ken Bristol from church. I think the world of Ken and his family and
it wasn’t surprising that he would take time in the middle of the day to come see
me in the hospital. As usual he was in tune to the needs of others and I was
learning more lessons. A little while later our Associate Pastor, Travis Cook,
came by to visit. I was already beginning to see the caring coming from my
natural family and from my church family and it had only been a few hours.
Since I was immune-compromised everyone that came into my room had to wear a
mask and if I went out of the room I had to wear a mask. I felt sorry for
anyone that visited me for any length of time and had to wear that thing the
whole time they were in the room.
So here I was sitting in a hospital
bed, which is very uncomfortable, with tubes running from the IV in my arm up
to bags of antibiotics and fluids hanging from a pole and thinking all I want
to do is get out of here. I knew I was sick but I didn’t really feel all that
bad. Hospitals are full of sick people, was this really going to help me get
well? They sent me something for lunch that was supposed to resemble food but I
am not sure how. Great, an uncomfortable bed, a pole with fluids next to me
that I had to take everywhere I go, sick people all around me, food that was in
name only and no idea what was happening.
God was already starting to show me
many lessons and there were many more to come. I was already learning about the
caring of others, and I would see a lot more of that, but I was also learning
that it can always be worse. I was able to get up and walk around and after a
few hours that is what Don and I did. Don removed his mask and I put mine on
and I grabbed my pole and we walked the halls. This was the cancer wing and I
observed the many signs outside the rooms along the hall showing the needs and
limitations of the patients in the rooms. It was depressing but I started
counting my blessings and realized how selfish I was feeling sorry for myself.
Lest you get the wrong idea I didn’t immediately stop feeling sorry for myself,
but lessons were being learned. Later in the afternoon Kathy came to visit and
see how I was doing. She talked with the nurse and got a handle on all the
technical stuff going on because of course I didn’t have a clue. After awhile
Kim was finally able to come and visit. We had been in contact of course so she
brought me some things from home including my pajamas. Needless to say, one of
the first things I did was get rid of the dreaded hospital gown. Don and Kathy
left and Kim and I were able to spend some time together. I felt so bad for
her. She had to work extra hours, she was stressed, tired and was visiting her
husband in a hospital and would have to return home alone knowing the process
would be repeated the rest of the week.
After Kim left I sat there alone,
sort of, since someone was always coming in to check, prod, poke or adjust
something. I was getting tired but I was going to learn quickly that you don’t
get any rest in the hospital. I watched a little TV and did some reading but
all I really wanted was to get some sleep. I lay down in the bed and tried to
go to sleep. Between everything that was going through my mind, being in a
strange place and someone constantly coming in the room to check, prod or poke
sleep was not forthcoming. I tried all night long and around 0430 as I was just
starting to drift off, the lights came on and a person carrying a basket set it
down, grabbed my arm and said she was going to draw blood for my labs. So much
for getting any rest. After she took my blood and slapped gauze on the wound,
she turned out the lights and disappeared. Unfortunately I was to find out that
she would return like clockwork on a daily basis.
I laid there again trying to go to
sleep but realized that was not going to happen. I figured I might as well get
up, get cleaned up and start my day such as it was. I did my version of a
sponge bath, still attached to my rolling pole with tubes running into my IV,
changed my under-
wear,
brushed my teeth and tried to make myself presentable. I sat in the chair next
to the bed and started reading my Bible. This was something else I needed to do
more of and it looked like now I had the time. Here was another very important
lesson being learned. Although I was still in a place I didn’t want to be in,
God’s word gave me comfort. It reminded me that I needed to focus on what was
really important, I was learning lessons about relationships and how the other
stuff was superficial. After having a short time of prayer with my Lord I was
feeling a little calmer, albeit still very tired and hazy. Then the reality of
where I was came into my room. It was another very nice person bringing me
breakfast. I use the word breakfast lightly since the only resemblance to
breakfast was that it was served in the morning. It was supposed to be a cheese
omelet but it was nasty. Not only was I not going to get any sleep, it looked
like I was going to lose more weight. My dear God, help me to learn my lessons
quickly.
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