Quarantine day 14-My inmates-Part 2
It wasn’t what you could call a restful sleep-IV’s, stickers all over my chest and a box monitoring my heart. My phone still had a charge in the morning and I breathed a sigh of relief…still here sweetie! The Doctor came in the morning, looked at the nurse and asked “What side was affected?”-“Neither” I said, Good morning. She had me squeeze her hands and push against them, same with my feet as the other nurses had done when I’d been admitted. Said she couldn’t see what the Smiths Falls Doctor did but they would need to do another catscan with dye to rule anything out..answer, but no answer, my hopes were high that she had really good eyes. They brought me a tray of food, I really couldn’t touch it, still spinning. Another Doctor came in, Dr. Kamal and told me they were moving me, YEAH! out of the isolation ward. I didn’t have any of the symptoms and I was 14 days into quarantine, no fever, no cough no shortness of breath. I can’t tell you how many times I was asked that in 24 hours, but I know they were doing their jobs.
Another stretcher, more corridors, elevators, flashing lights passing by, bumps and turns to a whole new ward to wait for the next cat scan and a chest x-ray they said. So glad to have my old phone and to be able to talk to Mike and text him…a feeling that home wasn’t far, the cats missed me, the old guy Beezil was really depressed he said, my heart was aching, if the old Burmese died while I was in here, how could I forgive myself for not being there:(….
At some point in the morning they came to ferry me to the catscan with dye, that was wild, a whole body flush of warmth, the xray was brutal, I had to sit up..”Barf bag please?” I asked, just a few hiccups and being very very still got me through it and the release of lying down and having some of the wild spinning stop was like a happy drug waving over me…now more waiting, but I could lie down and just listen…
This was a busy ward. The lovely day nurse sounded like Jamie Lee Curtis, JLC from now on, she had a quick laugh and a dark sense of humour that was very comforting:) Sometimes you can tell those that truly like their jobs. It was an extremely odd ward as well, where HAD they taken me? From behind my curtain I could hear dementia patients, and a fellow yelling down the hall, for girls, ladies, until he was screaming “Fire, fire!!!Let me out of here!” Just where was I? One flew over the cuckoos nest came to mind;) There was even a Nurse Ratched😉
FATHER JACK: In the bed beside me, a curtain away, a man, unable to walk, was waiting to go into surgery on his leg. I assumed he was older, mind you, I can’t really see anyone without my glasses or make any facial recognition unless they are very close. He grunted a fair bit, the nurses had to clean soup out of his beard and he said “FECK!” a lot…so I called him Father Jack. You won’t get the reference unless you have seen the delightful British/Irish series Father Ted…if you have you will understand why I wanted to yell “GIRLS! DRINK!” after every time he said it;) I heard him speak on the phone once, he mostly listened and I can understand his frustration as he had been bumped all morning out of surgery for emergency cases, let alone his hunger as he hadn’t been allowed anything to eat since the night before, he was also a diabetic, and was checked frequently, had a passion for anything sweet, “Juice! ginger ale!”he said, and he loved his call button, so much, he used it every 15 minutes…ding, ding, ding, ding….until the nurses disconnected it at one point I think. He put his bed up and down and up and down every 20 minutes as well. It wasn’t a quiet bed, it sounded like a World War II relic grinding it’s gears…he was confused. One night he rang and rang and rang asking for the TV, the TV he yelled! One nurse stormed out telling him to “Shut up! There were no TV’s!” The night nurse, she was a sweetie, she was red headed I think and that voice, if you’ve ever seen Star Trek Discovery she was the bubbly red headed ensign Silvia Tilly. Her name was Ashley 🙂 She approached Father Jack with an altogether different approach, one of kindness and exploring what is was that he wanted exactly. After a few questions, she worked out that it was not a TV, but the remote, but it wasn’t the remote but the buttons on the bed he couldn’t find as another nurse had pulled down the window shade and he couldn’t see where they were…mission accomplished. Father Jack had his window shade opened, could see his bed remote buttons and the ringing stopped for the night…Thanks Ashley, you rock! and yes, there wasn’t a TV to be seen ANYWHERE…isn’t that fantastic! That was Father Jack…
Good Looking guy: kitty corner to my bed in the room, there were 4 beds, a younger man was brought in. I could tell he was young by his voice and word choices, and perhaps quite handsome by the delight in the nurses voices, ha! So funny, it made me smile. They attended to him, fetched his sandals he’d left behind in emergency, oh, you’re a “Cowboys” fan one nurse remarked looking at them, “Aren’t you?” he teased the nurse. When I woke up, he was gone…
The Farmer: When I woke up there was an older gentleman with a good farmers sing songy brogue in that bed. He was speaking to his grand daughter, who was also in the hospital as she’d had an appendicitis attack that they had managed to get under control. I couldn’t see her but she sounded like a no nonsense farm stock woman who was quick to laugh. She reminisced with her grandfather, and spoke about her kids, and how happy she was to have a shower that morning, I envied her just then:) The farmers name was Bryce. He had a broken leg, after his tractor went backwards through several fences. Then his grand daughter started talking about the service for Bryce’s wife, she had just recently died, it was so incredibly sad, and yet this farmer managed happy laughs and tales with his grand daughter. They were postponing the service until Bryce got out of hospital and were talking about songs for the service. ” I like Elvis Presley and I like that Frank Sinatra guy” Bryce proclaimed ” Is he still alive?” His granddaughter shrugged and took out her phone and googled it, “Born 1915, died 1998” she said. “Nine years older than me!”Bryce proclaimed…he was 98 years old….I think I was grinning from ear to ear at this point of the conversation. So much sadness, yet so much laughter and joy as they talked about songs. He spoke with another grand niece on the phone the nurse brought over, who had to remind him who she was, daughter of your favourite younger brother Arthur, Bryce! “Oh, yaah” he said cheerily and they chatted away for awhile…then they took him off to surgery for his broken leg that he had kept walking on…
Top songs at UK funerals, 2019:
- My Way – Frank Sinatra (non-mover)
- Time To Say Goodbye – Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman (non-mover)
- Over The Rainbow – Eva Cassidy (non-mover)
- Wind Beneath My Wings – Bette Midler (non-mover)
- Angels – Robbie Williams (re-entry)
- Supermarket Flowers – Ed Sheeran (new entry)
- Unforgettable – Nat King Cole (up three places)
- You Raise Me Up – Westlife (new entry)
- We’ll Meet Again – Vera Lynn (down three places)
- Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – Eric Idle, from Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ (down two places)
That was interesting:) No Elvis Presley songs in the UK;)
The puppy owner: I’ll call him that as they brought him in opposite me and I could hear him telling the nurse how he’d tripped over his Samoyed puppy three days ago and fell down and his brother had just found him this morning as he couldn’t get up. Wow…laying there for two days at least. His legs were badly swollen he told the nurse, felt like spongy rubber underneath, but he could walk now, but couldn’t get himself up after falling to reach the phone or anything “I probably blacked out” he said. He was on the phone trying to call his brother but couldn’t remember his cell number., The nurse brought him a phone to call a friend who knew his brother’s number so he could speak to his brother to tell him he was OK. His wife was in a home, she kept falling and he couldn’t pick her up anymore at one point. The nurse was trying to go over his history and he seemed cheerful enough to give what information he could remember. The puppy had been taken back to the breeders for safekeeping he’d said. He wanted to make sure the puppy was ok. At one point later he tried to get up to go to the bathroom and amidst a burst of swearing a giant crash transpired…nurses came running, cut on the head, huge bump, ice, back into bed, they took his temperature, he needed to pee he kept saying and the nurse brought a bedpan but what ensued was basically a fountain of urination…all over himself, the bed, the curtain, the nurses were wailing…he’d spiked a fever, they called for a Covid test, and then he was whisked away on a stretcher…
A nurse walked in after her break and exclaimed to her co workers “Have you seen the line of ambulances backed up out in front of emerge?”…”They are getting brave again” said another,”They need to STAY HOME!” Another nurse passed by was sharing what one of the Doctors on the Covid ward was telling his patients, “There is no cure, no medicine, no magic pill I can use. I can give you a shovel and a pile of dirt, and you have to build the dike to keep the water (Covid) at bay, it is up to you! I am only here to help as best I can, it is entirely up to you….wow…poignant words for someone facing this pandemic but also wise, be strong, fight!
They did bring me lunch at one point, an egg salad sandwich on whole wheat wrapped in plastic on the tray. I still couldn’t lift my head but rummaged around with my hand, it tasted like the finest gourmet snack I had ever had, my horse show friends know my affinity for egg salad…comfort food….I managed to eat half before drifting off. I was wondering if there would be any results from my cat scan today, but no, the nurse said, it was Good Friday, not until tomorrow, not such a Good Friday I thought:( Although I finally managed to pee in a bedpan lying down, you’d be surprised just how hard that is…and what a relief…Father Jack had a diaper, it needed regular changing…and large quantities of Febreeze sprayed around the room;) I used my yoga skills, the bridge for that pan to go in, and come out, “Yeah, no rolling you over” JLC said “filled to the brim, you DID have to go!” These ladies are Saints:)
So I waited. They also started me on an anti nausea/spinning drug with the graval (Dramamine) and Tylenol for my tooth grinding, jaw was getting sore, hard not to while lying there semi awake I guess, I’m not aware I do it but must when I’m dozing, those inner demons working away;) Then came dinner, it seems no one got the note I was no longer in isolation so I received the isolation tray. Now, it may be just me, but is serving a really bad take on Chinese Sweet and Sour complete with a mystery meat a bit of a slap in the face to these folks in the Covid ward, Chinese food? Really? sigh….photo evidence:
Yummy glop it was not, picked at the rice, which was also glommy and set it back on the tray….my kingdom for another egg salad sandwich….by now I felt able to document my gastronomic torture;)
As I settled in for my 2nd night I felt relieved to be out of the Covid ward but with no news, still in limbo. Father Jack had settled into his bed up, bed down routine and I listened to the gears grind. The loony down the hall had settled down from yelling and I was happy for the quiet, the dings and bells of nurse calls and Iv’s had started to sound like background music. I could talk to Mike, I could still talk so at this point, all was well in my little world…
Stay tuned, last part I promise tomorrow:) Look at my lovely view;)
