Having been given Previcid the previous day, I awoke on Thursday from a terrible interrupted sleep in the hospital. My roommate, an older woman, liked the room warm. When the nurse came in at 2 a.m. for an EKG, I thought I was down in the Bahamas with Anna Nicole's entourage. It was stifling. The nurse said the temperature was 85 and turned it down.
When they came in at 6:00 a.m. to weigh my roommate with the creakiest scale possible in this world, the room was still warm. They checked my vitals and afterward I decided to get up and rinse my mouth and take a walk.
What is this feeling? I felt renewed! No pain! And at the first words that I spoke to the nurse,
NO VOICE. Now many of you know me that I'M not a person of few words, as when I'm feeling good I'm like a parrot chattering away. But NO VOICE. Aagh!
I wasn't allowed to have anything to eat after 12 midnight since I was having two tests that morning. By 9:30 a.m. the great wheelchair assistant took me to the basement for a stress test and the MUG scan. There was a woman there who used to come to South Jersey when she was little. We started conversing and I thought my voice was starting to come back. By the time she and I were done with our tests, I guess it started going downhill again.
Back to my room at 1:30 p.m., I was now allowed to eat. All the nurses brought to me was 2 packs of saltines, 1 graham cracker and 2 small cups of cranberry juice. Not having anything since dinner the night before, I devoured them as well as the cookies Mike and Lisa brought over the night before when they brought my overnight bag to me. They couldn't get me a lunch tray!
By 3:15 pm after seeing the cardiologist and saying that my pains were not heart related, that all the tests came back negative, that the blood flows perfectly fine through my heart, that my heart is in good shape, I was allowed to go home. Then Dr. Hartner (chemo doc) came and said that my heart was in good shape to take the chemo, that the pains were probably intestinal, I was allowed to go home. Some other doctor whom I had seen in the ER, but never got his name nor understood him most of the time, came and said I could go home.
Paul called at 4:00 pm (when he gets off work) and wanted to know when I was leaving there. He had an errand to run. I told him to do the errand and when I thought it was getting close, I'd call. By 6 pm all but the nurse had signed the release form. Low and behold, the dinner plate arrived. There was no way I was leaving this hospital without eating my dinner since I didn't get breakfast and lunch. Paul and Michael arrived shortly thereafter and watched me eat my one meal of the day. Within the next 30 minutes, the nurse and I concluded our relationship.
I was on my way home.
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