Sunday July 31 was a quiet day on the road to and within the hospital. Saying to a staff member that "things are quiet" is supposed to be a bad omen - so don't say it. Things might just become busy and that is certainly not good, especially if you are already a patient waiting for a nurse to come and administer that critical injection. I noticed that in the post-anesthetic ward there was no bed number 13. There was however in other wards. Superstition in a hospital may not seem to be such as good thing but humans are providing treatments to humans and some of us are superstitious. I can report that upon further observation I did not see any broken mirrors, black cats, people walking under ladders or carrying open umbrellas in the corridors. Whew.
Many who are reading this are scientists or working within that community. Science is wonderful. In a hospital, science provides the infrastructure and the equipment that trained staff require to treat people with a wide array of problems and issues. As scientific discoveries are made and new devices are developed the staff takes even more training, or hopefully they do. Even keeping up with new releases of the Microsoft operating system is challenging enough.
The various monitoring devices, scanning equipment, ultra-sound devices, IV discharge regulators, cardiac related things and other scientific apparatus that is seen everywhere is to me very impressive. Like the Xerox machine at work I wouldn't know even how to turn on most of this equipment. However, there are some very fundamental items that are used every day that may not have the bling or interesting soundings of these specialized instruments. The communication systems, the sophisticated ice makers and even the automated doors that are connected to the fire alarm systems are some things that you don't think twice about. I imagine the blue prints for the place must take up a good size room in the engineering wing of the hospital. I will return to this topic.
Sunday was a good day for Laurie. She ate, she drank, she walked and talked and she was quite cognitive of what was going on. Of course she slept. However, unlike yesterday, no attempt to break the Guinness Book of Records for continuous hours of sleep was made. The vital signs are all quite positive as was the nurse who reported that Laurie was a very pleasant patient. She listened to songs on her Blackberry at noisy intervals. These were particularly acute when the fellow down the hall yells for help. He does this during his waking hours I believe. It is a good thing that he is in a single room and that Laurie's room is not directly across the hall. At first, I thought that something serious was occurring but no staff intervened. As time progressed I realized that the yelling is seemingly being ignored by everyone. Although somewhat unnerving I am getting used to it. I thought that perhaps he had Tourette Syndrome but this was not the case as I later found out, coincidentally enough in the morning coffee queue. So, if and when this man is really in need to help then good luck to him. I was told about this type of thing in childhood - remembering it now shows that I was paying attention to who ever told me the story.
Laurie's physical appearance is slightly improved. Perhaps a little less swelling but definitely less unwanted colouration. As we sat in a hall way bench after breakfast, her surgeon approached and we all talked. He said that Laurie was doing well and that the clips would likely come out in two days. Clips? I did not know that she had clips. To me they looked like staples and regardless of proper medical terminology they will always be remembered as staples. Perhaps he said "clips" as he did not want to frighten Laurie. However, she has looked into the mirror and already seen the staples. He indicated that we would likely be leaving the hospital someday in the coming week. I took this as a grain of salt as he basically wrote the discharge papers three days ago. Maybe not so great on the paperwork but he is one heck of a craniotomy surgeon.
Laurie's memory is still a concern. She is able to recall specific things and events from the past but is not able to fully and accurately respond to questions about current items like the date and where she is. The correct answer to one question can become the same answer to a different question. Overall, I feel that she is getting better and that one day she will just ask the nurse to stop asking her these silly questions. So, what was essentially an uneventful day was really a very successful day. Feeling quite tired we parted about 18:45. The sun was back shining through the blinds and she waved and smiled as I disappeared behind the curtains.
As I left the hospital I heard a "whoop, whoop, whoop" sound with significant decibels. Directly across the parking lot and the road was a bright orange helicopter gaining lift. I have no idea if someone was being delivered or picked up. In any case, this person's day was not as promising as Laurie's. I wish both of them well.
Traveling to the hospital on the holiday Monday August 1 was more relaxed than most previous trips. This was mainly because of Laurie's good day yesterday. She had two new day nurses and after a quick introduction was told by them that Laurie did not have a great night's sleep. This would be for the second consecutive night. Laurie told me that there were too many late visitors in the room who came to see the Turkish lady in bed #1 that kept her up. I guess that other things are prevalent that cause her to not sleep well. There is the late night pill swallowing and checking and bath room run. She must be anxious to leave the hospital as she mentioned this over the day.
The little red nurse alert button was not working in Laurie's bed and she was distraught when no one came to see what she needed last night. I checked this out and there was indeed a malfunction. No alert was given to the nursing station. Later today one of the maintenance guys fixed this up. It seems that there was a loose wall connection or something persnickety with the other end of the wire. Before leaving tonight Laurie tested the button and to her and my satisfaction the system now works. This test will now be added to the night time preparations. Such a simple thing that could have had a devastating outcome.
Laurie had as good day as one could hope for at this point. There is a decrease in the amount of yellow colouration on her face and neck. There also appears to be some reduction in the swelling around the temple. Ice has not been applied in last day as the feeling was there would be little, if any, medicinal benefits. A bag may be applied but this is more for comfort. Three meals were consumed along with some goodies brought from the house. Her vital signs are quite good. She is resting but is also becoming a little restless. She is not sleeping more than say 30 minutes before reopening her eyes. As one would expect she seems a bit frustrated with this happening over the daytime. Her memory for events and things in the past is becoming better. It is a real pleasure to hear her mention something that shows the neurons are firing reasonably well. It is still with the more recent aspects in her life that she is having difficulty recalling.
Her journey began at the Kemptville Hospital at 19:00 Friday July 22nd and she has very little recollection of what has happened since then. She told me this today as we were making one of our three tours around the floor. I have not told her as it is too early to do so and she is not pushing the issue. Her walking is improving and the intention is that we increase the distance or the frequency of these walks a little each day. She seems to be happy with her progress as well which is so vital to her well-being. I stayed until about 19:45 tonight to talk with the night nurse. Laurie will get an extra pill later on that should help her have an uninterrupted sleep. She was quite pleased to know this. As I write this I hope that Laurie is indeed in a peaceful slumber.
Tuesday, August 2. I always let Laurie know when I arrive about 08:20 what the date is. This is to help situate herself at the start of each day. The nurses also ask her about the day, month and year and where she is. My telling her earlier in the day does not always result in her giving the correct answers to the nurse. This is the part of the day that I find difficult because Laurie knows so much about so many different things.
She was up and eating this morning about 08:25. This was a great way for me to see her day start. Such a simple task but so important in her rehabilitation. A number of activities take place right after breakfast. These include the brushing of teeth, putting on a snappy looking robe and then the sneakers, trip to the toilet (or WC if you prefer), a walk about the floor with one or two stops at seats to do light callisthenics, back to the WC, and back into bed removing all attire put on at the start. So by 10:00 she is pretty much ready for some rest, especially if you had some codeine with your meal. This morning she did this very well and I was pleased to see her in this state. We shared a Tim Horton's coffee before lunch arrived. Although I sensed that she would not be interested in eating this, she got enthused about the meal. She ate everything and even asked if I had more yogurt from home to go with her fruit salad. I was happy to say that there was.
About 13:00 a friend came over for a pre-arranged sitting with Laurie. This permitted me some time to go over to one of the Agriculture Canada greenhouses where Laurie has been nurturing plans that she has brought back from the Canadian Arctic and Labrador. I wanted to see how they were doing considering that warm temperatures have settled into the Ottawa region over the past weeks. Upon arriving I was wonderfully surprised to see they were doing well and in fact had just been watered. I bicycled over from the hospital since the two buildings are quite close together. I cycled back to the hospital about 14:00 and found that our friend and Laurie were talking and laughing.
The rest of the afternoon was a little rocky. After repeating the post meal activities and enjoying the company of a friend, she tried to settle down but could not. Whereas the room was fairly quiet in the morning it turned quite noisy in mid afternoon. Various nursing and doctoring things behind closed drapes seemed to catch her audio attention. The Turkish lady in bed # 1 still has, in our view, too many visitors coming during the day. Wouldn't you say that half the population of Istanbul traipsing into the room during an afternoon is a little too much? Then as the exodus began, the lady in bed #3 began to snore. I imagine that the Geological Survey of Canada was receiving Richter Scale readings in the vicinity of four to five now. I swear that the beds were shaking. Laurie's eyes popped open and we could only smile at each other. So, sleep was very difficult for her. The impact is that the afternoon becomes very long and uncomfortable. She even suggested that we go for a pre-dinner walk which we did. The seismic like activity had ceased when we returned and the room was good...for about 15 minutes. That is when dinner arrived.
Of course meals define the time of day in the hospital. You know you are getting close to meal time because there is an increase in hospital staff on the floor. For the attentive patients and guests, the distinctive sound of the squeaky wheeled food cart can be heard in advance of the incoming tray. What Laurie ate for dinner the previous evening was not what she requested. So, not knowing if the meals were simply randomly distributed, I had written down what she was to get tonight. My randomization theory will require more empirical study as she did receive the dinner requested - sweet and sour chicken with veggies.
It must be difficult for her to repeat the same activities after each meal, day in and day out. We have some variation involved but generally it is a sedate life style for her. I am hoping that she keeps her spirit up. She is improving on the outside at least. The Pathology report is still not available to us. She has good vital sign measurements that one day I may end up graphing to see if I can model her observed behaviour on different days. Still, she does not complain. She asked her night nurse about getting another sleeping pill and was promised that one was coming her way after 22:00. I tidied up her small chamber and closed the curtains. An early night to be sure but I think that she wanted nothing much more.
She did begin to read for the first time as I was preparing for departure. It was a free travel magazine that I had picked up while having coffee a few days ago. In it there is an article about visiting the Charlevoix region in Quebec. Laurie and I did travel there about five years ago during the glorious autumn. We enjoyed the holiday immensely and partook in a number of things highlighted in the article. Laurie knew that we were there and we reminisced a little when looking at the magazine photos. It was another indication that this was a pretty good day for her except for the mid afternoon distractions that is.
Returning to the story I began with. Of all the things that are in the hospital, the one that must be frequently overlooked and unappreciated is the hospital bed. This is something integral to the patient's comfort and health and to the staff needs. It means economic success to the laundering companies that take care of the huge amount of things that go on it. Pillow cases, sheets, mattress covers, blankets and leak pads. But the hospital bed itself is a marvel of engineering that probably does not receive much notice. It is not hand formed by craftsmen in Stockholm and distributed worldwide from boxy shaped stores painted in blue and yellow. There are no enticing names like "Cloud Nine" or "Bed-of-dreams" graphically adoring the headboard in splashy colours. These beds do not present the virtues of memory-foam or underneath storage and you probably can not colour co-ordinate them with your bedroom wall-paper. But if you are in a hospital then these are the beds you want.
Take the Stryker FL20E for example. This is the one that Laurie has been in for most of her journey. This bed can not have been made in your typical work shop. This thing came from a subsidiary compamy of either a major ship builder or GM is running a separate line from their Hummer plant in Kentucky. These beds measure about 195 cms long by 102 cms wide. The height is what you want it to be. They come with axial steer, friend braking and total braking systems. They can be patient or attendant operated to raise or lower the top and or the bottom ends of the bed. If you just want to levitate yourself all day then no problem - just push the right buttons to elevate yourself quietly and smoothly. If this bed was traveling towards a small car at a closing speed of 40 km per hour then put me in the FL20E please. The bumpers are solid and integrated into the frame-work. No plastic niceties here. The weight bearing load that I reported earlier is 227 kg. How big a person can sit in a car comfortably for days on end? And speaking of size, I can't see fitting the FL20E into a single car garage in one of those new urban development homes in Meadow Grove or some other such named community. These garages would barely fit a BBQ, a couple of bikes, winter tires for his and hers and the boxes that you moved with but will never likely open. And Meadow Grove? All you can see looking out from the windows of these new homes are your neighbours vinyl siding, over-sized pressure treated back deck and the shingles on the storage shed. No meadow and no grove.
I imagine that Laurie has been quite comfortable in this bed. She has not complained about being sore or in danger of falling out or being annoyed by squeaking noises from the undercarriage or brakes. The side rails have not reached the stage of being automated but they are simple to use for those outside the bed, not for those in the bed. There is a multi-lingual display screen at the headboard for which the operating manual is too large to leave in the room. Options are there for the asking. A Kendall Response Compression System (also known as the "squeezer") can be simply hooked on. If one was patient enough to find the available options in the manual, I would not be surprised to see a Global Positioning System, Geiger counter, altimeter or voice activated controls. This bed is impressive. When I was last in the hospital for appendicitis, I remember that the majority of the beds were as old as the hills and they had similar topography. Next time you happen to be in a hospital take a good look at the beds. Thank the designers, engineers and the manufacturers for their work. They would appreciate your nod of approval as much as those using them in their journeys along their roads to recovery.
Good night from Oxford Station -
Mark
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