Saturday, December 22, 2018

The Sounds of Silence

I have noticed that which each visit to the hospital ERs, I find new rooms and additions I haven't seen before.  Wait, just how many times have I been in the ERs of Torrance Memorial and Providence Little Company of Mary?  Today was another visit, in a section I have never seen.  For some reason my BP was elevated and would not go down. Now my normal BP is on the high side with meds, but this time there were associated side affects that freaked Gayle out.

You know it is serious if you are taken in right away when you check in and never see the waiting room again.  The frequency of Nurses and Doctors coming in and out of your room indicates how serious your condition is.  Did you know that at 3 in the morning there aren't that many people in there?

I'm used to being in the hospital and it's procedures.  Go there and wait, get up and go over there for this test, return and wait.  Strip down and put on this gown, open side in back.  Roll over and let me perform these invasive procedures.  It's time to suck more blood out of that tube in your arm and by the way,  it's time for your hourly temp, BP and oxy level check, did I wake you?

Side note:  Gayle did not drop me off across the parking lot, but in front of the front door.  Which brings up the other side of these visits.  While it has become familiar and almost comfortable to me, it drives Gayle up the wall.  I can lay there in calm, pain or nauseousness, but she sits in constant turmoil and worry.  Something I tend to not see.  It is the family that suffers in silence.

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