(no subject)
Nov. 23rd, 2003 11:01 amMy gratitude to the hospital for putting in this computer terminal has been dimmed, somewhat, by the discovery that they put games on it. With sound. With no way, apparently, to lower the sound. There's an older guy in the waiting room today who has developed a fondness for some sort of noisy shoot-em-up game, god help me.
Yesterday was a much quieter waiting room day, without the constant stream of family visitors requiring civil conversation. We saw Papa four times. Each time he looked a little better. At the 5:00 visit he was sitting up in a chair, and he managed to eat a fair amount of his dinner. So it's been encouraging. All day yesterday they were saying that today he'd be moved up to the floor.
Today, not so encouraging. He spiked a little fever last night, and today there's something they don't like on the heart monitor whenever they get him out of bed. (I heard about this second-hand through his wife, so the medical details were somewhat lacking.) He's going to have another day in the ICU. The slightly alarming part is that he doesn't mind having another day in the ICU - it sounds good to him. I guess it's better for him to have another day of the highest-quality nursing care, but it feels like a step backward from where we expected to be today.
When we got to visiting hours this morning, they were just taking out his chest tube. Afterwards, all he could really do was sleep - he looked utterly drained. Hopefully he'll be feeling a bit better by the noon visit, and we'll be able to stay a little longer.
My task for the day, I think, is being charitable towards Papa's wife. She's really starting to get on my nerves. I'm trying to remind myself that no one is at their best under stress, and that I need to be as kind to her as I can, regardless.
I think I'm going to be in this waiting room for the rest of my life.
Yesterday was a much quieter waiting room day, without the constant stream of family visitors requiring civil conversation. We saw Papa four times. Each time he looked a little better. At the 5:00 visit he was sitting up in a chair, and he managed to eat a fair amount of his dinner. So it's been encouraging. All day yesterday they were saying that today he'd be moved up to the floor.
Today, not so encouraging. He spiked a little fever last night, and today there's something they don't like on the heart monitor whenever they get him out of bed. (I heard about this second-hand through his wife, so the medical details were somewhat lacking.) He's going to have another day in the ICU. The slightly alarming part is that he doesn't mind having another day in the ICU - it sounds good to him. I guess it's better for him to have another day of the highest-quality nursing care, but it feels like a step backward from where we expected to be today.
When we got to visiting hours this morning, they were just taking out his chest tube. Afterwards, all he could really do was sleep - he looked utterly drained. Hopefully he'll be feeling a bit better by the noon visit, and we'll be able to stay a little longer.
My task for the day, I think, is being charitable towards Papa's wife. She's really starting to get on my nerves. I'm trying to remind myself that no one is at their best under stress, and that I need to be as kind to her as I can, regardless.
I think I'm going to be in this waiting room for the rest of my life.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-23 05:37 pm (UTC)John