Day Six at MUSC 10/09

First off...now that I wrote the words "the final countdown", are you sitting in front of your computer going "doo doo dooooo dooooooo doo doo doo doo doooooo"???

I had every intention of staring UP today but the night staff just ruined me.

I went to bed around 11:15. The nurse snuck in around 2:00AM to hook up an IV bag that is supposed to run for 30 minutes, then kick back over to the saline for the night. At about 2:45 AM the machine started beeping...and beeping....and BEEPING. AIR IN LINE...AIR IN LINE...AIR IN LINE. I wait, thinking surely the nurse who sits right outside my door can hear it beeping. AIR IN LINE...AIR IN LINE...I finally, for the very FIRST time since I was admitted, hit the call button. ( I don't like to hit the call button. I am very self sufficient. This isn't the Hilton and they are not my servants.)

"Yes?"
"My IV won't stop beeping."
"Ok."

At 3:09AM, I throw off the covers, rip the plug out of the wall, drag the entire unit over to the door and stand in the doorway letting the beep echo up and down until someone came up and turned it off. I thanked her, got back in bed. Ten minutes later, door opens, light turns on, it's my nurse coming to see what was going on with the IV. She notices that it never ran to begin with, resets program. She leaves.

3:20AM.

"Are you F*ing kidding me?!" I yell to no one.

My new neighbor across the hall apparently doesn't sleep well at night. He watches the tv louder than my father, if that is at all possible, and he, too, does not believe in the call button rather choosing to shout, "Hey....HEY. NURSE. HEY."

I fold my pillow around my head to muffle out the noise and eventually drift back to sleep.

5:59AM.

A nurses aid, or "tech" as they prefer to be called now. I don't care. They're all either RNs or CNAs to me. Anyhoo, she's out there, plugged into one of the mobile computer carts which happens to be plugged into the outlet in front of my door and she's flirting with a phlebotomist who is there to get blood from noisy neighbor. They are loud. Laughing, cracking jokes. "Nuh-uh, Fo'real?"

Once again, I curse into the darkness, get up, yank the cord from the wall, open the door. Neither of them pays any attention to me. I demand she get my nurse. After a few minutes my nurse arrives to say she was planning on coming in at 6:30 to hang my next bag.

"I thought you'd be sleeping now."
"Well, I'm not, so I may as well take a shower. Bring me a flush please and something to wrap my arm with."

By 6:45AM I have already been up, showered, gotten a cup of tea, and was dozing off watching Robin Meade.

The rest of the morning goes well. Meds arrive on time. RT arrives on time. PFT is rescheduled for today--in fact I bump into my CF doc and he puts my chart into my arms and allows me to walk it over myself, partly because waiting on transport could take forever. So I trek over to the next building to repeat my test.

12% increase over last time! Woot! Suck it, Gil!

I skip back to my room to eat lunch and meet with my CF doc. Not only does he give me the ok to go home, but he decides to forgo the home infusion which was giving us financial heartache and opted for oral antibiotics...the kind you find on the walmart list. YAY.

I text Garrett while he's in class at WU: Come get me NOW.

He bolted out the door and across campus, pulled Rylie out of school, went home to walk dogs. They got on I-77 at 2:15 according to the text I got from Rylie. It's about a 3 hr, drive, sometimes 3 hrs and 20 minutes.

They called at 4:45 to say they were 2 exits away from the one for the hospital.

Couldn't have made better time if they'd been using a transmit beam.

And so, I await the final paperwork and having my PICC pulled.

And I bid this place adieu!