Oh. My. Lanta. (Part 8)

The next day, I felt awful.  Everything hit me like a mack truck.  It was the day after procedures, 2 blood transfusions, and just a day and a half past my fainting episodes.  My body was spent.  I had no appetite and felt like death.  I was assured over and over that it was just part of the process.  I hadn't really slept in days and when I had, it had been drug-induced...not exactly restful.  I was kind of a wreck. 

I really don't have much else to say about that day, so I will take time to talk about my roomates.  HIL-ARIOUS!

My first neighbor was Betty.  We got to our room just before midnight on Monday night.  Betty got up to use the bedside toilet 3 or 4 times in the night.  Mark and I were NOT a fan of the lights, the noises, the smells.  Ugh.  Betty was very hard of hearing and everyone had to yell to talk to her.  Middle of the night after the most traumatic experience of my life and there were people shouting at 93-year-old Betty.  I really don't remember much about Betty except for the repeat bedside bathroom episodes, but I do remember laughing (though it hurt like crazy) with Mark about things.

When I came back from my drain and blood procedures, she was gone and was replaced by Millie.  Oh, Millie!  She had no idea in her dementia state how much pain and agony she caused me as I laughed and laughed at things she did and said.  Any time one of our IV pumps would beep, she would start hollering for someone to answer the phone.  She thought that the nurse call button was the phone, so she repeatedly called the nurses in.  They would assure her that the phone had been answered and leave the room.  This probably happened 5 times within an hour.

That night, when they came in to take her vitals, she hit the nurse and said, "LEAVE ME ALONE!  YOU AREN'T DOING ANY MORE EXPERIMENTS ON ME!  YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"  I laughed and laughed and laughed.  She, too, was hard of hearing, and it was another sleepless night with yelling, colostomy bag emptying, *shudder* and her trying to get people to dress her because 'her nephew was waiting outside with the car to take her home.'  There were many more funny episodes with her, but I won't bore you with them.  Let's just say that, though I didn't sleep, I did laugh a lot and enjoyed the time with Millie, though we never spoke or met due to the curtain between us.

The next day, I woke feeling somewhat renewed.  My cultures had returned and the infection showed a huge colony of yeast.  I had been on huge, heavy-hitter antibiotics and to this was added a yeast medication (fluconozole for any of you people who know drugs...aka Diflucan).  I felt better and minimally stronger.  I was pushed to start walking little by little...just to the door of my room.  Then, just around the nurses station outside my door.  Then, little by little, we did more.  It was a start.  What would really turn my days brighter was a visit from my babies (though it was emotional and tough, too) and being moved into a private room!  What a change and what a blessing!  Oh, they also started me on some anti-anxiety medication and it helped me sleep, which was a huge blessing, as well!