Recently I spent eight long days in Mercy Medical Center! I’ll spare you too much detail, but I ended
up having emergency surgery for a ruptured bowl and had eight inches of my
colon removed. After the surgery, I
developed some problems with my lungs.
Let’s just say, “NOT FUN!”
Throughout my hospital stay, I realized that we take so much
for granted:
Breathing -- that’s a big one!! I had no clue that it is so much work to just
breath. As most of you know, I do love
to talk…but for two days I chose to concentrate on breathing instead.
Water -- For four days, I could have no water or other
liquids. The only thing I could do was
dip a sponge in water and swab my mouth.
When I finally got to have ice chips, it was better than handing me a
million dollars.
Food -- When you haven’t eaten for days, food (yes,
even hospital food) tastes sooooo good.
Showers -- On my fifth day in the hospital, I started to
feel a little better and started asking for a shower. Never got one! I don’t blame the nurses; they are so
busy. Yes, eight days without a
shower! Thank you to my friend, Carmen,
who came one day and washed my hair with some dry shampoo and gave me a “spit
bath”. That is the true meaning of
friendship!
Going to the Bathroom
-- Every time I needed to use the
bathroom, I had to push my nurse call button and wait for the nurse to
come. She would then have to unhook my
IV and temporarily cap it off. Unplug
the oxygen from the wall and hook it up to a portable tank. Then, when I returned from the bathroom, the
nurse had to do all that again.
I hope I am a changed person and appreciate all the little
things in life so much more after this experience!
