So the day starts with Jim calling me on my cell phone from his room, "When are you coming to get me? Bring the car around. I'm going home." Oh no you're not, I tell him. He's still got compression bandages all over his head like a mummy. He's nowhere near being healed, and he's still got pnemonia.
I went by this morning as soon as I could get out. They still have him on oxygen through his nose because his lungs are not clear, and his pulse goes way up and his oxygenation level drops when they get him up walking, so he's got a long way to go. They keep giving him nebulizer treatments every few hours to try to clear him out. I asked the nurse, since she's probably seen a lot of pneumonia cases in hospitals, how long these things generally take to clear. She said anywhere from a week to two weeks depening on the age and condition of the patient. All the nurses that come in tell me they heard about his "coding" episode in the last ward and how no one came for 10 minutes, so I'm getting the story around really well. Plus he's still got infection in the side of his face where he had to get opened twice. They had to wrap him up again today because he was leaking a little goo out the bottom of his chin. He's been sipping ice water even though he's not supposed to, but he claims it's all going down the right pipe.
I brought him a photo album from home, the card that Jimmy's school friends made that poor Jimmy was SO looking forward to giving him himself, and his i-pod that his friends bought him. The only problem was that he can't really put the headphones in his ear because of the headwrap, so I ran to the mall to the i-pod store and got him one of those speaker things you can hook the i-pod up to so you don't need headphones. I also got him a wall charger for the thing so the batteries wouldn't die. And I brought his mini dvd player and dvd's back to him so he has some diversions. He tires very, very easily, though, and he still needs morphine for the pain. He showed me the staples in his thigh where they tried to take a vein and save the carotid artery last week. He wants me to take a picture and tell everyone it was from getting a cap popped in his leg. He also got the catheter removed today but still can't get up on his own so has to use his little pee-pee jar if he has to go. I stayed until the early evening and then headed out.
I'm following the doctor's orders and taking my valium and xanax together three times a day. I have to wait about a half hour before I try to drive because woooo- they can knock you on your ass. But I've noticed they make it so you really don't give a damn about anything much. I'm driving to the hospital boppin' to the radio and don't care AT ALL who sees me acting like a fool. If I ever wanted to go to a bar and start dancing on the tables now would be the time to do it. It also doesn't help that I've got a slight cold now and have been taking cold medicine on top of it. When I go to see Jim I use tons and tons of anti-bacterial gel (they keep it hanging in the doorways of all the rooms) and I hold a kleenex in front of my face. I also try not to get too close to him.
Jimmy went home to my Mom in Bloomfield on Monday. Tomorrow they're having a few people over for cake and pizza for his birthday, then Mom will drive Jimmy back to Judy's so she can get him back to Sicklerville and move back into my house, her "summer" house she calls it. Since my Mom is up in North Jersey (Bloomfield), as long as I'm not sick as a dog in the morning when I get up, I'm going to drive down there to be at his birthday party, then I'll drive back that night. It's only 3 1/2 to 4 hours from here to my mother's, as opposed to 6 hours to my house. I'm going to stop and see Jim around 7 a.m. to make sure he's o.k., and then head out. I might not get back until really late so don't be surprised if there's no post from me on Sunday.
And to the guys in the tech service department, thanks so much for the basket. Geez...the thing is three feet tall. I'll have to share with the nurses because there's no way I'm eating all of that. But there was actually a very nice saying on the card. I don't know if anyone there actually picked it or the florist came up with it, but it's so true: When the world says "give up", hope whispers, "try it one more time.
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