Keeping the faith

Got this photo at Letsgowings.com They have a photo shop forum that is pretty hilarious. If you get a chance, you should check it out. Anyway, The Wings lost game 5 yesterday which put them behind in the series 3 games to 2. There are a lot of people saying that it's over for them now. To those of you saying that, I stick my tongue out at you and make flatulent sounds. Granted, the last few playoff years haven't been all that great with 2 first round exits and one second round exit, but if you look back to 2002, you will see the wings in the same position against bitter rivalry "Colorado Avalanche". We came back and beat them in game 6 only to embarrass them even worse in game 7. Remember that folks? They had to pull Patrick Roy, one of the greatest goalies ever, from the game. I have faith that a similar result will occur this year. For those of you wings fans having doubts, you have to remember what the wings are capable of and have done in the past. I believe, you should too.

The hospital

I got the privilege of staying at one of the most luxurious(sarcasm)hospitals in my area. Even tho I have really great insurance and figured they would have billed my company to the hilt, they chose to place me in a room with 4 beds. What this means is that no one gets any rest because someone is always in need of something and they are not quiet about letting the nurses know. I will spare you the gory details of the first 4 days with the senior with uncontrollable bowels and bladder that left the most unpleasant smell, usually at dinner time.
Then there was the patient who seemed to think that whenever a nurse was in the room for someone that he was obligated to scream out, really really loud, that he would like assistance too for whatever reason. Whether it was to get a glass of water or adjust his pillow or some other meaningless task. The funny part is that he moved around just fine when he thought no one was looking.
In one of the other beds was the guy who never moved or said anything, just laid there with his mouth wide open and snoring loud enough to wake the dead. I hear I can snore loud too so it is possible I got even with him. After a couple nights, they moved Romeo, as I like to call him, into the bed next to me. He was visited by his wife and kids for a couple hours. After they left, he turned on his cell phone and proceeded tp get calls all night til about 3 in the morning when I finally opened the curtain and requested he give it a rest. They should have a rule that bans cells after a certain time in the rooms but they don't. I have to admit it was fun listening tho. Same conversations to different women with his wife calling in between and asking who he'd been talking to as she has been trying to get through. I had to laugh. I think it was my 4th or 5th night there, we had the guy looking for a law suit. He kept telling them that no one new what the "F" they were doing and he was going to sue. Of course he new what medication he should have better than the doctors. Any way, later that night, about 2 a.m, he started yelling that he was going to sue the Mother F's and pulled out his IV and was storming down the hall. I could hear him for at least five minutes as he was still cursing while waiting for the elevator. He was replaced by the guy who knew everything about everything and talked non-stop. Nobody had to even be listening for him to talk which was usually the case.

While most of my stay was okay, my first 2 days were without food or water. This was in part to them trying to decide if I was going to have surgery right away or not. Finally they decided against it until a later date. On the 3rd day they put me on a liquid diet but neglected to tell me that I needed to call the cafeteria and tell them which liquids I preferred. Needless to say that once I found out I could have broth and jello among other tasty things like lemon sorbet(ewwwyuchh) but had missed my chance because they didn't tell me I had to order, I sort of copped an attitude. They brought me ice chips and I told them to take them away. I may as well starve with the service they were providing. Granted it was a short lived attitude, but it was long enough for one of the nurses to get an attitude towards me. I hadn't eaten in 5 days including the 3 days previous to be hospitalized and would assume that she could've been a little more understanding. You all know how it works when you assume tho. Oh well, on the flip side, once I did get to eat real food,(day 5) it was actually pretty good, except the grilled chicken. I don't think it was grilled at all. I could go into more details but when you think about it, you probably hate hospitals as much as I do and could probably care less. In closing all I have to say is that if you have to stay in a hospital, beg, plead, whatever it takes, to get a private room. You'll thank me for it later.

Right meds, wrong time.

In my past I had taken penicillan for various ailments and have had no problems. So when they stuck me in the ambulance almost 2 weeks ago and asked if I had any allergies, I confidently replied no. Apparently as you get older this can change. I did not know that. Anyway, here I am being transported to a "bigger, better" hospital, receiving my IV of meds and casually riding and talking with the nurse and EMT in the back of the ambulance. I had just had a CT scan and was told I had to be transported for immediate surgery as they didn't have an on-duty surgeon where I was at. I remember the nurse telling me about her daughter asking her not to drive like a maniac or something like that. At that time, I felt my head start to itch and noticed a lump on the back of my head. About 2 minutes later, that lump had doubled in size and I asked the EMT to check it out. She asked if I had bumped my head and I said no. About 2 or 3 minutes after that I noticed that it had doubled in size again and was as large, if not larger, than a golf ball. I tried to express my concern when the nurse noticed that I was breaking out in hives. I looked down at the heart monitor and noticed my heart rate gradually increasing. They asked if I could breathe okay and I said yes. It was about that time that I started dry heaving and the panic was starting to make itself known. I've never had a panic attack in my life but figured that this is exactly what one would feel like. I think due to that, and my neck swelling up, I started having trouble breathing. Maybe it was the power of suggestion, I don't know, but between the dry-heaves and gasping for air, I questioned if I was going to pull through. Luckily for me all this happened while in an ambulance. With a vast array of needles filled with the appropriate medications, about 4 or 5 needles, I was given enough medication to calm me down to where I was able to breathe comfortably again and the dry heaving had subsided. I still had the knot in my head and the hives, but those where bearable. The 2 people I really felt bad for was of course, my wife following in the "Ugly Aztec" who was driving along casually only to see the ambulance lights and sirens go on and then go speeding off, and the nurse. First, the little woman. I remember the driver asking if I wanted lights and sirens on as a joke incase I wanted to feel important. I told him probably shouldn't be cause we didn't want to set my wife off in a panic. She didn't need the extra worry that that would've provided unnecessarily. It would've been cool but not at her expense. So when the sirens did go off, I felt bad for her not knowing what was going on and being unable to do anything about it. Second, there was the nurse. While I think she did her job most efficiently, she did have this look of concern on her face that bordered panic or fear. As she held the bucket under my chin, in case the dry heaving panned out, and jabbed needles in my arm, I couldn't help but to feel sorry for her as my casual ambulance ride turned into so much more. Leave it up to me to make things interesting. All in all, everything turned out okay and after my 6 day hospital stay, with surgery still to come, I'm just glad to be home again. Still to come....the hospital stay