Imagine my surprise when I got a call this morning at 8:45. It was Holly, "It looks like I'm getting out at noon today."
She said that she forgot her "sleeping" pill so she got up at 4 a.m.ravenously hungry and started her Tuesday early. As in bumming an essential-to-life "clear-liquid breakfast" of Jello off a nurse. When you've been on clear liquids for 72 hours and fear melting and slipping through a floor drain if anyone turns up the heat, a half cup of Jello can beckon like a half-pound steak.
With that nutrition on board, it was then a question of taking a shower, sorting clothes and bedding and otherwise filling time until food service opened. At 6:30 a.m. she picked up the phone for food service and phoned down the order for oatmeal, 2 % on the side and brown sugar she'd been dreaming off and on for two days. What? No one had switched her to "semi-solid foods" and she couldn't get it yet? Have you people seen the fury of an ill-fed, sleep-deprived, somewhat-damp hospital patient? Yes, that's her over there in bed, but note how high she's got the top of that bed cranked.
Holly chased down a nurse who thought there "might" be a doctor around at that time and got the transaction completed. Within 45 minutes, that cherished bowl of grain was in its proper spot.
I got there and she was sitting up bed. We were talking about what she had been doing and she said "Is this what you meant by chirpy?" Later Holly's surgeon stopped by and they talked about the plans for their next meeting. Then after some paper work and a couple more consultations Holly got discharged.
So now we are home.
----------Holly, later---------
That 7 a.m. bowl of oatmeal was so good I ordered another for "lunch" at 10:30!
When the doctors made the rounds, one with a pronounced accent took the lead with me. He asked (I realize now) "Do you want to go home?"
I registered bafflement.
"Do you want to go home?"
Hoping to pin down what might be a crucial question, I dutifully repeated back, "Do you want to go home?"
The next sally came through loud and clear. "I asked you first!"
So there we were . I woke poor Randy up calling him -- it's incredibly enverating to sit at a bedside and alternately entertain yourself and a patient for hours on end. But I hoped I wouldn't be so demanding a patient at home that he couldn't continue to catch up on his rest!
And the idea of not spending another wakeful night at the U (Law & Order or no Law & Order) sounded, to quote my nurse, "lovely".
