Breakfast came at 7. The lady who brought it asked for my lunch and supper order. I ate most of the scrambled eggs, but they were softly scrambled and did not set too well. I ate one piece of bacon, the oatmeal and the orange sections. I kept the biscuit and second piece of bacon for Chris, who was coming at 8. He could have had the rest of the eggs and the coffee, but the lunch lady took them away with the tray. When Chris did not show up at 8, I called the number Chris wrote on the white board, but some lady answered. I had the CNA dial the number and got an answering machine. Finally at 9:30, Chris came in with my knee pillow, and phone. I was so glad to see my phone since I haven't memorized the numbers of people I wanted to talk or text to. He hadn't gotten my message. I had messages on my phone, and one was from a cc company flagging a suspicious charge. Chris called the company to dispute the charges because they were on a card we canceled a week ago. He had to ask to speak to a manager. The manager ended up thanking him for bringing this to his attention. I called the dental office to say I might not be there tomorrow if I am still in the hospital.
A bunch of doctors and med students came by to ask me questions about my condition. Hearing that the Percocet didn't help, but the Robaxin did a little, he prescribed more Robaxin, a lidocaine patch and a steroid drip. The nurse put the patch on first, then hooked up the IV, and finally found a pump to make it work.
Lunch came at 11. I ate the chicken salad wrap and vegetable soup and grapes. Someone came to take blood. Apparently my white cell count was slightly high, so she came back for more blood for a lactate test. She planned to repeat it every three hours.
My back started feeling better. I was able to lie in one position for 10 minutes or more. I tried to sleep, but that eluded me. Painstakingly, I scooted to the edge of the bed, rolled to the left, and crept out with my feet to a chair that Chris had placed there. But that was as far as I could go. So I laid down on my back again and lowered the bed. I tried again, and finally got my feet on the floor and enjoyed sitting up for a few minutes. Then I stood up. I alternated sitting and standing for awhile. Then I used the bathroom like a normal person. Chris had to clean me up because of all the loose movements. Chris called the nurse and I was able to show her that I could walk. A physical therapist came to check me out. I stood up for him, walked forward and backward. He checked my leg strength and listened to my explanation that walking was never a problem, only getting to an upright position. Andrew was happy with my condition and said I could tell the checkout people that I would rather stand than sit and that he said so.
I read my book until the nurse came back to give me papers to sign and tell us we could leave. The lactate tests were canceled. As was the x-ray. She also gave me one more dose of Robaxin, saying it as the largest dose she'd ever seen. It made me feel loopy. I asked if it promoted loose stools and not feeling good in the gut. She said no, that would be the hospital food. The eggs are made from powder. I preferred to walk, so we walked down to the first floor. We did not know where to check out or even if we needed to. Chris said they'd send us a bill, so we just went to the parking lot to get in his car. The Robaxin made the ride home easier. Chris followed the GPS home and it did not avoid pot holes.
Chris heated up chicken while I sat in the bathroom trying to get rid of the hospital food. I read a book until I couldn't sit anymore. I put the book away, and went to the kitchen for supper. The chicken was excellent. I also had my daily handful of nuts, plus some sauerkraut. I listened to part of Supplements Revealed. But at 8pm it promptly shut down because the next episode was out.
We put on Call the Midwife. Then Faye called. Her evening wasn't as good as she'd planned. Then we finished the Netflix show. Chris went to bed and I stayed up to write two blog posts, hoping I didn't forget anything important.
* This is the white board in the internal medicine ward. *
No comments:
Post a Comment