A Sleepless Night

(Continued from yesterday's post--click here)

While I was in the emergency room, well past midnight, I could hardly keep my eyes open, and all I wanted was to get into a comfy bed, in a regular room, and go to sleep. However, hospitals are not a place of rest!  Once I was transferred to my room up on the top floor, there was much to do before I could close my eyes. The hospital gown had to be changed to a different hospital gown because the kind they use in the ER is not the kind they use in the cardiac unit.

Next was the stack of forms to be filled out by the nurse, which required me answering another whole slew of questions.   (I wondered why they couldn't just get the answers out of the computer since I had already answered all of the same questions in the ER, and I had watched as the nurse typed all of the information into the computer.)

After that repeat session of gleaning all of my medical history was finished, the nurse began the process of adding another IV injection to what had already been established in the ER, thus adding another bag of fluid to add to the IV pole, in addition to the oxygen tubes in my nose.  At that point my right arm (and hand) were pretty well covered with needles and tubes and gauze bandages, and I was thinking, okay, enough of the needlework tonight (I mean, Saturday morning).

But wait...there's more! The nurse had barely finished with all her needlepoint creativity when a phlebotomist arrived from the lab to draw more blood for more tests (probably the same blood tests that had already been done in the ER).  That presented a problem, in that she needed to use my left arm instead of my right arm, since it was already occupied.  The artery and veins in that arm are extremely small--barely "findable".  That was first discovered when I was in college and I decided to donate blood (for the first time)--it was not a pleasant experience, to say the least!  A few years later I was told by a phlobotomist not to let anyone use that arm for drawing blood.   Well, with this hospitalization, I found out that in an emergency situation, it would do no good to tell anyone that.  They have to do what they have to do!  The phlobotomist tried using the main artery, but it refused to give blood, so the needle was withdrawn--same thing as happened back in college when I first tried donating blood.  After some difficulty in finding another suitable spot, she finally decided to try using a "butterfly"--the tiniest needle.  Success!

Last on the list was one more round of rechecking my vital signs and temperature.   Finally, it was goodnight and lights out.

Oh, how I longed for sleep!   However, that blessing was not forthcoming after all.   My door was not to be closed that night, nor were the drapes drawn at the large picture window.   (Looking out from seventh floor windows, I had a beautiful view of all the city lights below me.) The noise in the hallway was more than even a hibernating bear could sleep through!   I was pretty sure the nurses and other medical personnel were having a party, and of course, the center of the hubbub was directly across from my room.  (I had been instructed not to even think about getting out of bed by myself, since I fell back down on the bed the first time the nurse tried to help me get up to go to the bathroom.)

As I lay there debating whether to sneak out of bed in order to close the drapes and the door to my room, an alarm began to sound out in the hallway. I think it continued blaring for at least half an hour--probably longer. (I learned later that it was a fire alarm going off on the main floor, six floors below.)   I began to feel a bit alarmed myself as I sensed my heart picking up speed!   Finally my nurse came in to assure me that all was well after all floors had been fully inspected by the firemen.   Whew!   She again checked my vital signs, and bade me "goodnight" once again.

To be continued . . .