Slumber Party

After I was admitted to the hospital on Friday evening I was taken to the urological floor all the way up on the 17^th floor. I was shown to my room which was fortunately a private one instead of a semi private one (with two patients in one room) which was nice since my mom was spending the night with me. (She even got her own hospital bed to sleep in, too, which was nice for her so that she didn't have to spend the night in one of the hospital's uncomfortable plastic recliners.) I was transferred out of my wheelchair and into a bed. (Which, I might add, was quite hard, especially compared to the airbed that I'm used to sleeping on at home.) My nurse Erin was very sweet and it was fun telling her about myself as she went through the long list of questions that you ask patients upon hospital admittance. As we talked, I found out that we went to the same nursing school (I'd just been there a few years before she had… small world, right?!)

A little while later another nurse named Thiky (I asked her how she pronounced her name and she said like Vicki, but with a 'th') came in to start an IV. I told her that I was an extremely hard stick (I have the tiniest veins) and wished her luck. She grabbed a chair, sat down and started perusing my arms for a viable vein. A student nurse named Claire came along to observe and she was such a delight! She was so cute and had the most gorgeous blue eyes! She asked what advice I had for a brand new nurse, so we spent some time talking about things that I as a seasoned veteran patient think healthcare workers need to know.

As we talked, Thiky patiently scouted my arms and hands looking for a vein and after about 30 or 40 minutes of feeling around she was fairly confident that she'd finally found a promising vein in my hand. We all held our breath, crossed our fingers and said a little prayer that her attempt would be successful. It was. Whew! By the time all of the necessary admitting business had been taken care of it was close to 12:30 AM and I was pretty tired. I slept pretty well Friday night, considering the fact that I was out of my usual environment. One thing I don't like about being in the hospital is how so many people come in and out of the room all night long. It's hard to get uninterrupted sleep.

I was on the OR schedule to get the stent put in my kidney sometime on Saturday morning/afternoon depending on how long it took for a room to open up in the OR. I waited all morning and was finally taken down to the OR a little before 2 PM. I'm an old pro at things like this, so I definitely wasn't nervous – I just wanted to get it done! The procedure was quick and painless. I was back in my room by 4 PM and was feeling good.

Mom had been at the hospital with me the entire time, but Chandra hadn't since she'd worked on Friday and hadn't gotten home until the early, early hours of Saturday morning. By the time I got back to my room after the procedure Chandra had arrived to hang out with Mom and me. I definitely would've rather been at home than in the hospital, but since I didn't have a choice in the matter it was great to have Mom and Chandra spend the evening with me. USA network was running a marathon of one of our favorite shows to watch together, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, so the three of us watched a few episodes. The marathon got over at 10 and Chandra had planned on leaving since she needed to get up early the next morning for church. She flipped through the channels to find something for me to watch on TV before leaving and the movie The Count of Monte Cristo was just starting. That's been one of our favorite movies for a long time, so she decided to stay and watch it with me. (What a good sis!)

The movie ended at 1 AM and I told Chan that she better get on her way so that she didn't fall asleep in church the next morning since my mom and I wouldn't be there to nudge her! ;) After that I settled in to bed and I thankfully slept fairly well. The hard, uncomfortable bed made my neck and the tops of my shoulders pretty stiff, so I was glad that I would be going home the next day.

I don't like to let my posts get too long because I don't want people to lose interest. (I know I often lose interest when I'm reading other people's blogs if their posts are super long, unless they're especially captivating.) So that's why I'm opting to make this hospital experience into three shorter posts instead of one super long post.