You may have read my other story called "Sickroom Supplies" from last year when I was home with the flu. This time, I'm writing from a hospital bed in Kaiser Richmond ICU with an IV port on the back of each hand, and an oxygen monitor attached to my middle finger. It lights up the end of my finger just like ET's, only red instead of green. I think the nurses may have heard my not-so-original quip about "ET phone home" a few times before. They're getting used to my sense of humor, though, since I've been here now, for almost 4 days.
When my husband and I decided it was time to take me to the emergency room for repeated dizzy spells (I won't go in to details), we grabbed a couple of things to help pass the time. Both of us knew that a visit to the ER could involve a great deal of waiting, so Doug first grabbed the morning newspaper so he could be assured of his daily Jumble fix. There would also be a couple of crosswords in there; one for each of us, and a Sudoku or Cryptogram if I got desperate, depending on my condition. I also grabbed a few sheets from our New York Times calendar that has a page with a crossword on it for each day. We mainly just do Monday through Wednesday, since they get harder and harder through the week. I always have a few in my purse in case of a "crossword emergency".
Turned out it was a good thing that we went to the ER, since it was shown that my dizzy spells happened whenever my heart paused, or STOPPED for 3-6 seconds. I had been having these faint feelings since January, but didn't take them seriously, blaming them on dehydration or inner ear problems. My advice to everyone reading this is to not ignore dizzy spells. .....So that's how I ended up in the intensive care unit. At this time in my life, and at least for this emergency, I seem to be one of the younger, and relatively healthy ones in the ICU. Most of the patients in the other rooms need more constant care, such as turning them so they don't get bedsores. The person in the next room had some sort of breathing problem, and every time she coughed, the machine she was attached to made a sound not unlike the horn on a taco truck. She wasn't conscious, but I think if I was, I'd be trying to figure out how to cough to make a tune. (Sorry, that wasn't very nice.)
As for me, I feel pretty well between the "dizzy spells". They seem to pass over me and leave me feeling fine afterwards. Because I felt so fine, Doug and I made a list of things that would keep me entertained during my hospital stay. He thought he wanted to stay with me all night in one of those recliner chair beds, but one of the nurses discouraged him with tales of all the night noises, alarms and beeps that you shouldn't have to hear unless you had to. So, convinced that I would be well taken care of, he left with a promise to return in the morning with my supplies.
There really wasn't a very long list. My iPhone was almost out of battery, so he had to bring the charger so I could communicate with friends and relatives that were outside the 510 area code (the only ones that I could call from the bedside phone). Also, the iPhone isn't just a phone. I'm figuring out that when the din of the hospital is so loud, I can put on the Hawaiian music or George Winston station on Pandora Radio and pretend I'm in a spa. I can text our kids and check email, and even Tweet! When I can't go to sleep and want a story read to me, I can listen to Podcasts of Garrison Keillor doing his daily Writer's Almanac stories and poems with his soothing voice. It's like a bundle of goodies to soothe a person cooped up.
I still love to read a real book though. Even though I had read it before, I asked for my copy of Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods". We entertained each other the next day by reading aloud from it. One of the sentences couldn't be completed because I was laughing so hard, and Doug took the book from me, finished the phrase, and then got stuck, just as I did, both of us with tears rolling down our cheeks. Isn't it wonderful when a writer can communicate so well?
On a calmer note, I chose a book about settlers in Washington state, "The Living", by Annie Dillard. We're taking turns reading that one, since it's the history of the area where Doug was born, in Snohomish county.
Actually high on the requests were my favorite pens, a Bic 4-color one, and another that I got from an art supply store that has 6 (count 'em! 6!) colors of ink, plus a pencil. These are for crosswords. I bought a bunch of these pens when we retired, so we could always find one. We look like Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee, sitting in a restaurant doing a crossword together, each with our own color ink. Also, if a letter is changed, it goes in a different color, or if we cheat and look at an answer, it's in another shade yet!
Evidently, Kaiser is trying to be classy and gives each patient what looks like a little blue voile "spa" bag with all the grooming products one might need, including ear plugs and a sleep mask that has helped me through most nights, and a nice Kaiser "Thrive" shopping bag with fruits and vegetables on it, rather than the usual medicinal plastic bags to take your "parting gifts" home in. My mother-in-law, Helen would have said they were "fadink", her word for fancy. All I had to ask for from home was deodorant and jammy bottoms to hide my bottom when visitors come.
Some of the nurses have commented that they've never seen anyone in ICU sitting up in bed using a laptop, but that was one of my requests. I love checking on how many folks have read my stories and where in the world they live. I've been handing out my new cards printed lately with my blog address, to anyone who will take one, and I reminded myself of how Mr Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) gave everyone his card in the great old movie "Harvey".
Since I'm mostly here to monitor my heart, and figure out how to control its irregular beats (atrial fibrillation), I feel pretty well, surprisingly, even though my heart pauses sometimes, every 10 or 15 minutes. I have my share of IV ports, blood draws and shots in the tummy (heparin for anti-coagulation). It's not comfortable or as if I'm on vacation. If I ever got out of bed to walk the 3 steps to the toilet, I had to be unleashed from the short cords monitoring BP and oxygen. The very patient, knowledgeable nurses made it all bearable. One of them visited with me one night before she got off, and laughed so hard with me, as we both told each other jokes we've heard Paula Poundstone say and recounted our favorite stories from Garrison Keillor to each other. I ended up leaving the Bill Bryson book for her so she could laugh some more. It's true about laughter being the best medicine.
Late on the fourth day, a medicine has been found to regulate my heart, and I get to thankfully, go home tomorrow. I have a short list to make me happy when I get home. A long shower, a nap in our own bed, a nice, ripe, Santa Rosa plum off my tree, and a piece of Dove chocolate. Mmmm. Home sweet home.
When my husband and I decided it was time to take me to the emergency room for repeated dizzy spells (I won't go in to details), we grabbed a couple of things to help pass the time. Both of us knew that a visit to the ER could involve a great deal of waiting, so Doug first grabbed the morning newspaper so he could be assured of his daily Jumble fix. There would also be a couple of crosswords in there; one for each of us, and a Sudoku or Cryptogram if I got desperate, depending on my condition. I also grabbed a few sheets from our New York Times calendar that has a page with a crossword on it for each day. We mainly just do Monday through Wednesday, since they get harder and harder through the week. I always have a few in my purse in case of a "crossword emergency".
Turned out it was a good thing that we went to the ER, since it was shown that my dizzy spells happened whenever my heart paused, or STOPPED for 3-6 seconds. I had been having these faint feelings since January, but didn't take them seriously, blaming them on dehydration or inner ear problems. My advice to everyone reading this is to not ignore dizzy spells. .....So that's how I ended up in the intensive care unit. At this time in my life, and at least for this emergency, I seem to be one of the younger, and relatively healthy ones in the ICU. Most of the patients in the other rooms need more constant care, such as turning them so they don't get bedsores. The person in the next room had some sort of breathing problem, and every time she coughed, the machine she was attached to made a sound not unlike the horn on a taco truck. She wasn't conscious, but I think if I was, I'd be trying to figure out how to cough to make a tune. (Sorry, that wasn't very nice.)
As for me, I feel pretty well between the "dizzy spells". They seem to pass over me and leave me feeling fine afterwards. Because I felt so fine, Doug and I made a list of things that would keep me entertained during my hospital stay. He thought he wanted to stay with me all night in one of those recliner chair beds, but one of the nurses discouraged him with tales of all the night noises, alarms and beeps that you shouldn't have to hear unless you had to. So, convinced that I would be well taken care of, he left with a promise to return in the morning with my supplies.
There really wasn't a very long list. My iPhone was almost out of battery, so he had to bring the charger so I could communicate with friends and relatives that were outside the 510 area code (the only ones that I could call from the bedside phone). Also, the iPhone isn't just a phone. I'm figuring out that when the din of the hospital is so loud, I can put on the Hawaiian music or George Winston station on Pandora Radio and pretend I'm in a spa. I can text our kids and check email, and even Tweet! When I can't go to sleep and want a story read to me, I can listen to Podcasts of Garrison Keillor doing his daily Writer's Almanac stories and poems with his soothing voice. It's like a bundle of goodies to soothe a person cooped up.
I still love to read a real book though. Even though I had read it before, I asked for my copy of Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods". We entertained each other the next day by reading aloud from it. One of the sentences couldn't be completed because I was laughing so hard, and Doug took the book from me, finished the phrase, and then got stuck, just as I did, both of us with tears rolling down our cheeks. Isn't it wonderful when a writer can communicate so well?
On a calmer note, I chose a book about settlers in Washington state, "The Living", by Annie Dillard. We're taking turns reading that one, since it's the history of the area where Doug was born, in Snohomish county.
Actually high on the requests were my favorite pens, a Bic 4-color one, and another that I got from an art supply store that has 6 (count 'em! 6!) colors of ink, plus a pencil. These are for crosswords. I bought a bunch of these pens when we retired, so we could always find one. We look like Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee, sitting in a restaurant doing a crossword together, each with our own color ink. Also, if a letter is changed, it goes in a different color, or if we cheat and look at an answer, it's in another shade yet!
Evidently, Kaiser is trying to be classy and gives each patient what looks like a little blue voile "spa" bag with all the grooming products one might need, including ear plugs and a sleep mask that has helped me through most nights, and a nice Kaiser "Thrive" shopping bag with fruits and vegetables on it, rather than the usual medicinal plastic bags to take your "parting gifts" home in. My mother-in-law, Helen would have said they were "fadink", her word for fancy. All I had to ask for from home was deodorant and jammy bottoms to hide my bottom when visitors come.
Some of the nurses have commented that they've never seen anyone in ICU sitting up in bed using a laptop, but that was one of my requests. I love checking on how many folks have read my stories and where in the world they live. I've been handing out my new cards printed lately with my blog address, to anyone who will take one, and I reminded myself of how Mr Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) gave everyone his card in the great old movie "Harvey".
Since I'm mostly here to monitor my heart, and figure out how to control its irregular beats (atrial fibrillation), I feel pretty well, surprisingly, even though my heart pauses sometimes, every 10 or 15 minutes. I have my share of IV ports, blood draws and shots in the tummy (heparin for anti-coagulation). It's not comfortable or as if I'm on vacation. If I ever got out of bed to walk the 3 steps to the toilet, I had to be unleashed from the short cords monitoring BP and oxygen. The very patient, knowledgeable nurses made it all bearable. One of them visited with me one night before she got off, and laughed so hard with me, as we both told each other jokes we've heard Paula Poundstone say and recounted our favorite stories from Garrison Keillor to each other. I ended up leaving the Bill Bryson book for her so she could laugh some more. It's true about laughter being the best medicine.
Late on the fourth day, a medicine has been found to regulate my heart, and I get to thankfully, go home tomorrow. I have a short list to make me happy when I get home. A long shower, a nap in our own bed, a nice, ripe, Santa Rosa plum off my tree, and a piece of Dove chocolate. Mmmm. Home sweet home.
