After the visit from Marianne, and those great massaging hands, and the visit from Kenny jobba, and the stories of his great ironman Canada
so here is today’s story. The doctors make their rounds at around 6, or 6:30 then the nurses come in with medication at around 7 or 8. Breakfast at 8. I haven’t had a shower for awhile so I asked for a shower that they gracefully allowed. Even though it is a hell of a lot of work for them at probably one of the busiest times of the day. The first shower I had over a week ago they used a large commode chair which I fit in quite well. This time, they had a smaller water proof wheel chair to take me to the shower. Natasha my nurse and another nurse Ruth were assigned the task of showering me. The first job was to get me out of bed using a sling and a hoist. The first problem encountered was the chair was about three sizes too small. That is my legs were too long for my legs to fit on the foot plates. And given the issues with my left leg it wouldn’t bend to fit on the foot plate anyways. Once they got me in the chair at a precarious angle it was off to the shower room. With one nurse pushing the chair and the other bent over walking backwards preventing my bum leg from dragging on the floor Note: the shower room needs to be renovated. They wheeled the chair into the shower room and the 2 ladies started to remove my clothing. (first time I have ever been in a shower with 2 ladies.) they wash everything. Shampooed my hair while trying to keep me upright because I can’t keep my self in place. After a minor dry off it was back to bed. I got back in bed because I was scheduled for an x-ray and an ultra sound. That meant hooking up the hoist…the flight of the phoenix back to bed.
Soon after The porter arrived with the stretcher to take me to x-ray. Interesting getting from the bed to a stretcher. I now know what a pancake feels like in a frying pan. They roll you over to one side, fire a plastic sheet under you, put the stretcher beside you at the same height as you bed. And two guys give you a big push and you slide off onto the stretcher. Just like the afore mentioned pancake. The next part is really interesting they have porters here whose only job is to transport patients from department to department. Today had the fastest ride ever, from my room to x-ray. They are expert drivers they never run into anything and they aren’t afraid to take the elevator regardless of how many people are waiting for it. They park me in the x-ray department and there I sit for like seems like forever. And that’s when all the silly things start to hurt. The bum is sore from sitting on the stretcher the old legs aren’t on quite the right position and there are at least 25 people who went into the x-ray room before I heard 2 of the technicians say whose that guy out there in the stretcher he’s been out there a long time….so it wasn’t only me. Finally I got in to the x-ray and they had a look at my shoulder which I though might have been dislocated…it wasn’t. then it was back into the waiting room to wait for a porter. The same young fellow can to get me and I think he was even quicker on the return trip then he was on the initial trip. Then it’s back to the room, slide the plastic sheet under me on the stretcher and the pancake routine again sliding me back into bed. Once back in bed Valerie the physio girl came in and said they wanted to see me at 1:00 I mentioned that I was going for an ultra sound at 1:00 so she said she would do some quick testing and then she would see me after 2. Half way through the testing which was being poked with a pin over various parts of my body they cam to take me to the ultra sound. On the way to ultra sound, they use ultra sound to check for blood clots on your legs. It’s a fairly slow process as they rub the probe all over your legs form top to bottom. The operator put the probe behind my knee and pushed very hard into my baker’s cyst which I had for years. She mentioned “oh there is the problem with your left leg” of course I asked her what she thought it was and her response was “I’ll put it in the report and the dr. will tell you. Hopefully it is something simple that will get rid of the issues in the left knee. We’ll see. Back to the waiting room to wait for a porter to get me back to the floor. And its now 2:30ish. Back in the room instead of going back into be I requested to be put into my wheel chair. They can’t do that from the stretcher. Since I didn’t have my sling on it was the pancake thing back into bed. Up on the lift into the chair. I had missed my lunch so Darcy was pushing me and my tray so I could have my lunch with a view of the city. On the way I met the physio girls who said oh you’re ready for physio …. No I have to eat my lunch. Sigh and they said ok….we will see you tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent in the chair. And then back into by 8;45 in time for dinner. it's now 20 after 10 and I am going to take my pills and hopefully got to la la land for most of the night.
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