Living at the hospital, know what to expect

Know what you're in for if it happens to you :-(

Again, here preside the perils of NOT journaling daily.

I blame my circumstance and suffered the circumstantial downtime. But I lived in my mind, which raced all the time, trying to process what the heck happened.

To say we camped out at the hospital room would be an understatement. We lived, ate, slept and other stuff there. Both of us never wanted to leave R's side during recovery. Plus , we wanted to help coordinate his care. Sure, babysitters kept an eye on him 24 hours a day, in 12 hour shifts, but he wasn't their kid. We worked the schedule to not leave each other alone. The only other person who knew exactly how I felt, was my wife.

The ICU recovery room was tiny. I remember waiting in that room the day after. One of his nurses led us straight to his room to wait after his next urgent surgery. We coveted the lounge chair in the room.

I remember some of the great nurses who helped not just R, but all of us. In particular, one who looked like Kenny G used to be a semi-pro athlete, but settled on a career change as a nurse. Smart man. He somehow picked up that I cycled.

We waited in that room for 3 days for an opening in the regular hospital wing. Patients packed our hospital to the rafters. Like I said before, there's a lot of need out there. When a room opened up in the regular wing, we thought we hit the jackpot. I kept hearing "We're moving on up" in my head, an homage to my youth when television raised me. Seriously, twice as big with its own bathroom and even a pull out sofa bed.

Yet, the best in-room feature had to be private bathroom. Oman. Thank goodness!

The Babysitters

So what was this about? Considering what brought the patient into the trauma unit, a dedicated person watched R. Even with one of the parents holding a constant vigil, they wanted extra care. We welcomed it. Another pair of eyes helped during those first weeks of healing.