Peeing in a Hat and other stories

 Random Musings of a Multi-Day Hospital Stay

(No icky medical stories here, except at the end, where I've written about the medical procedure I underwent. There is an opt-out option!)

Good Nursing = Attention to Detail
I was admitted to the ER first, as the hospital did not have a room ready and Doctor's orders hadn't been received yet. One of my nurses there was HOT.  Young, hunky, and gooood-lookin'.  But, alas, he was not a very good nurse. Forgetting to leave my call bell and putting off---and putting off--my anti-nausea medication (until it was too late) made me wish he had stuck to designing deep water oil drills.  The rest of the nursing staff I found to be impeccable:  Compassionate, caring, supportive, reassuring, skilled--and detailed.  From their heads, to their hearts, to their hands, they were wonderful clinicians.

The doctor in an A-Line dress and a cute buttoned cardigan?
My physician came in on Thursday afternoon on her day off to check on me.  She told me later that when her husband asked her why the heck she was going to the hospital on her day off, she said she "just had to lay eyes" on me.  That was nice.

Peeing in a Hat
I'm not sure why they call it a hat, but it isn't a hat I'd ever wear on my head!  I learned that my bladder can hold a lot.

Good Ol' 5C19
Like I said, My Room wasn't ready when I was first admitted.  The (hot) nurse shoved the orders into my bag of belongings as he wheeled me up to the floor.  On the orders was written my room number.  The number seemed familiar.....and yep, as we got off the elevator and turned the corner, I realized it was the same room that my good friend "Lou-Lou" had been in two weeks ago when I was also in the hospital for my original procedure.  I had visited her there before I was discharged, and the Squid and Mini-Me  took my bowl of candy down to her to share with her nurses during the rest of her stay.  On the last night, my CNA looked at me and asked, "Are you getting a dinner tray?"  I said I had hoped to; I had filled out a menu. "Vegetarian menu, right?"  "Yes."  "Did you change rooms and come back?"   "Um, no," I said, "but I was downstairs for surgery two weeks ago."  Then I snapped and said, "Oh, you must mean my friend Lou-Lou.  She was in this room and I visited her."  It wasn't my visit he recalled.  "I remember the candy," he said, as he pointed to my all-new bowl of the same Costco assortment.  (Candy for the staff is appreciated; remember that next time you are hospitalized!)

5C19 has a great view of the surrounding neighborhood and south to the ocean.

Trashy Magazines
Sometimes Cosmo, Star, Us, and People are the only things that really fit the bill.

"You Look a Little Pale"
On Friday I felt soooooo much better.  I woke up feeling human again!  It was a new day, and the bugs were being licked good!  The charge nurse came in to introduce herself and asked how I was feeling.  "Much better!" I chirped. "Well, you look a little pale."  Ummmm ok thanks.

The Bad Trip
Thursday had been a bad day for me.  I battled nausea all day long.  The anti-nausea medication just didn't seem to be working, and so the nurse got an order for a different drug.  It burned going in my i.v.  I knew that wasn't a great thing.

Minutes later, I started getting dizzy.  It was very uncomfortable. I pressed the call button.  At that moment, Kevin walked in to visit me, and I suddenly got an extremely dry mouth.  I thought, "Holy cow, I'm having an allergic reaction.  I'm going into anaphylactic shock!"  I started to freak out and told Kevin to please go get my nurse at the station.  They were taking too long to answer my call button!  The nurse came running in and I told her what was happening. "Do I look all right? Do I sound all right?" I asked in a panic.  She took my vital signs and everything was fine.

She returned with the medication guide that listed dizziness and dry mouth as side effects, as well as confusion.  A few minutes later, I talked to Mike on the phone.  I could barely put words together and was talking a mile a minute.  I honestly don't know how much sense I made.  I was hyped! After I hung up, Kevin chuckled about something I had said on the phone, and I started to laugh.  And I laughed.  And I laughed.  And I laughed uncontrollably.  I could not stop laughing!  And the absurdity of the situation of course made me laugh some more!  Kevin, all the while was thinking, "I want some of what she got."  But I will never, ever touch Phenergan again!

Let's go Code Red!
I got to ride home in a Police Car, but darn it that he wouldn't go Code Red (or "Code 3" as he calls it. Didn't he learn the lingo from Adam-12, like I did??).   People go very much the speed limit and very much hesitate to pass anyone when there is a police car behind them. 

More details
If you don't want to hear details of my treatment in Radiology, then you can stop here and go to the comment section directly.  If you'd like to read on about the fascinating procedure (there isn't much "ick" in my description), then scroll down.


















The treatment I received was swift and skilled. I met with a very fine Interventional Radiologist, who was one of the finest physicians I've met.  He was a good communicator, was compassionate, and highly skilled.  I felt perfectly at ease with him the minute I met him.  In the morning of my first day of admission, I was taken to the Radiology Department and they performed a C-T scan of my pelvis.  That was easy; all I had to do was lie there and hold my breath when the man in the machine told me to.  The contrast injection was a little weird; it made me feel all warm inside and like I was peeing, which I was not!

In the afternoon, after the physician had a chance to examine my scans, I was brought back to the Radiology department for the procedure to drain the abscesses.  There were two 3cm abscesses quite close to one another.  The doctor thoroughly explained the procedure before we started and I was loaded back onto the C-T table.

I was given Versed for sedation (remember Chuckbert's story about Versed?), and Fentanyl for pain.  Then he started guiding the wires through my abdomen under the guidance of the C-T.  He'd poke and push, then take a picture.  Poke and push a little more, take another picture.  It wasn't too painful, just a bit uncomfortable and weird being able to feel the pressures of a little worm traveling through me.  Once he reached the abscess, he drained it.  YUCK!  Then, he did the second one the same way and left in the drains and attached collection bags.  Luckily they were small abscesses, and they didn't drain a whole lot over the next couple days.

The whole staff (radiology technicians, nurse, and physician) were great.  Medical people are such wonderful, caring people!  I didn't make too many goofy statements while I was under the influence of the Versed, except asking for a mirror at the end so I could see his handiwork.  "No," he said, "This isn't a salon!"

Two days later, he took the drains out, after first checking the abscesses with a regular x-ray (flouroscopy, really) and a little contrast.  I was able to look up and over my shoulder at the flouroscopy screen to see him injecting the abscesses and draining out that fluid again.  It was cool.  Once he was satisfied they were empty and clean, he yanked each drain out in turn. Now, that was a weird sensation!  Bloop!  Out came the worm!

All-in-all, if a person has to undergo a stressful procedure for a stressful condition, I'd want that person to have the team that I did. 

I was so happy to be in good hands the whole time.  I'm grateful to have such fine medical professionals in our community.  If you get sick, come here and get better!  Just one of the benefits of living in Paradise!

Samurai Sword thrown away, fists used instead.

Interesting events on the beat. 

Keep a close eye on this video!



See the article at KEYT.com.

And here is another article from the Daily Sound

Too many misters, not enough sisters

Over Memorial Day weekend, Erin, her friend, the squid, and I headed to Las Vegas for a Flight of the Conchords concert.  The previous month, when the concert was announced to fans, I re-arranged my workday so I could be at my laptop to buy tickets the minute they were available.

It was a fun concert!  These guys are fun!  Here are a couple videos of them.  The first one is one of my favorites from their show on HBO.

(Click twice on each video, and you'll go to YouTube, where it will be formatted correctly)




And this one is from a concert (but there is also a version from the show out there).