stressful saturday

Saturday, July 23, 2022

8:48 AM

Not a good night. Started with the night nurse being over an hour late with the midnight antibiotics IV. She also forgot the melatonin so I wound up taking that late. She comes in humming at 1:15 AM, turns on the bathroom light, which shines right in my eyes, and hooks up the IV. Forty-five minutes later she comes back in to unhook the IV. After that I was awake every two hours. Same nurse comes back almost an hour late for the 6:00 AM antibiotics IV still humming. I’m happy she had a good night. And to be fair to her, I don’t know what she was facing in the rest of the unit. However, the IV drip didn’t work, but she’s already gone off shift. The next shift tries to fix it, but something is still not right and we all give up. They say they’ll start the noon IV a little early to see if we can get back on track.

Mary came by for a visit bringing fresh underwear and socks. This is all stressful for her too and we both miss each other’s company a lot.

The nurse came in with some help for the skin irritation around my ears and nose from the oxygen tubing. Foam pads for the ears and something called Rhinaris for the nose. She says it should help.

Supper tonight almost didn’t happen. No tray came from the kitchen so Nurse Kayla managed to scrounge up two peanut butter and jam sandwiches plus an ice cream cup from the nurses’ kitchen. I had a piece of cheese I saved from yesterday and a granola bar in my backpack. Add in a fruit cup and an apple that had been left behind by someone and I won’t starve. I think these are more signs of staff shortages and other limited resources.

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