Room 8058

Patsy is intermittently awake in room 8058, a shared room, though she is on the list for a private a room.

She has been fairly lucid - even showing a bit of her sense of humor at times - though the morphine tends to put her to sleep.

After a day of being a supportive trooper, Sharon has left to sleep at a motel for awhile and will relieve me at about 9 PM so I can sleep and be up at 6 AM when the surgeon comes by. Hopefully, by 9 tonight Patsy will have a private room and I'll be able to sleep on a cot. They won't let me stay in the shared room past visiting hours because I'm a male and the other occupant is female.

I am told that Patsy may or may not remember anything that happens today, so I'm trying to leave her a record of the better things about this day, and to think like Patsy while doing so (i.e. photographing people instead of buildings.)



So, I shot pictures of Ann, who visited her from Hutchinson today. Ann is a nurse at Promise Regional Medical Center, which will probably always be called by its former name of Hutchinson Hospital by locals.



Ann was quite a help in that she brought useful stuff like lip balm and made suggestions the nurses followed like putting a bubble thingie for comforting humidity on the oxygen line they are using on Patsy to help work the anesthetic out of her system, and adjusting the bed so Patsy's tummy muscles felt better.

As much as a "document everything" nut as I am, I haven't taken any pictures of Patsy after surgery because...

A. It would not be her at her sparkling best.

B. I don't doubt that even though has more tubes and wires hooked to her than a Star Trek Borg, she could reach out and strangle me with said tubage.

So far, I am impressed with Via Christi. The staff have been polite and personable while staying focused on their tasks. It feels very professional here - like the people actually enjoy their jobs. Nobody has been dismissive of Patsy's post-operative pain.



We chatted awhile with Alyce (right), a Nurse Care Manager and Dorcas, a nursing student.

Also, the place doesn't smell like a hospital. It's a teaching hospital and students are everywhere. As I write this, a student nurse is conversing with the other patient about looking forward to her career. So far, so good.



Much to my surprise, Patsy asked to have her picture taken with Ace. She's getting perkier when she's awake. She says it's because she's watching the clock and knows to hit the morphine button every 15 minutes (its minimum allowed interval).

Thank you for all your comments so far, I read some to Patsy and will respond to a couple questions from comments in the previous post as I am able.