MY HOSPITAL ROOMIE---PART 2

****Before I continue to Part 2, let me just say, don't be a cheater. If you didn't read part 1, scroll down and read it first. Because, generally in life, 1 comes before 2. :) Also, I am doing much much better today. I actually feel like a real live human mother again. I picked the kids up from school, I mailed letters at the post office, I took Rivers to piano practice, I cooked supper (although it was only spaghetti), and I have completed two loads of laundry. Slow and steady wins the race. :) Thanks again for all your prayers, they truly work, and I am ever so grateful! Okay, on to part 2........

• Where were we.....oh, yes, the daytime dramas are playing and there's tons of company. So, I curled up in a ball and tried to think happy thoughts. Oh….but wait, here’s the best part. While watching their marathon of soaps, they cut my air vent off. The fan that keeps the cold air circulating throughout the room was on her side of the room. Underneath the window, on her side of the room. And they cut my air vent off. Did you hear me yet? In a matter of minutes, THEY RUINED MY NICE ARCTIC TUNDRA AND GAVE ME THE MOJAVE DESERT.
  
• I waited as long as I could, and when I could wait no more, I politely asked my nurse to ask them to turn the air back on….I was dying, or so it felt. So, one of the family members did as was asked. And about five minutes after the nurse left, I heard 'click'. Off it went again. It seems that the many, many, lovely guests of my roommate were cold. Who cares what you are…..you are free to leave the room at any time….I, however, am imprisoned in this room and need my air. Especially, if I'm going to be subjected to any more sappy daytime dramas.
  

It is now that I wish I had insisted on that PRIVATE room. Delirious from the heat, high on the morphine, and weak from the chicken broth meals, I broke. I had been fooling myself, I thought I was strong, but in an instant, they broke me. I texted Temple, begging for mercy (what exactly I thought he could do at the present moment was beyond me, but I texted anyway). Had anyone come in that I remotely knew, I would have thrashed myself at their feet begging for them to go out and buy me a fan. It was bad, I ain't gonna lie...... The nurse came in to check us both. I teared up. But only a smidge. I begged her to just swap sides of the room. She looked at me and said, “she’s only here for tonight, maybe you can make it through”.

• Maybe I can make it through? That’s all you got. Maybe I can make it through. So, I start shedding layers of blankets and sheets. A shift change occurs and I think I might have a chance. One of my favorite nurses is coming on board, and I try sweet talking her. “Look, I’ll change the bed sheets myself, if you’ll just let me move over to the other side where the air is coming from…...I can’t feel it AT ALL from over here.” And then it happened. I could feel it coming on, and tried to suppress it several times, but it reared it's horrid head anyway. The ugly cry. I just hid my head with my arm and pillow. And the sobbing commenced, and continued until the next soap rolled around. I'm sure it just sounded like I was upset at the recent events unfolding for Erica Kane on All My Children. But secretly, I was praying for the weather man to break in and announce an ice storm was looming on the horizon, just to bring a chill to the room. That, or a fan salesman to come knocking on my door.
  

I fade in and out of sleep for small catnaps. But as soon as I wake, I realize I'm back in the Sahara…..by this point, the nurse had walked over to the other side of the room and turned the air vent back on for me. I think they put it on low. Whatever. And again, by the short time it takes her to get back to the Nurses desk, some family member of the matriarch has opened the metal plate and again, I hear ‘click’. Off with the air. It was only a millisecond, but I think parts of my brain actually exploded inside my head when I heard the all too familiar ‘click’.

But to my amazement, I heard the matriarch announce in a thundering tone……”uh-uh. Turn that back on.” To which one of the infinite number of extended family, a female, huffed and puffed and stood there in dismay. Because clearly, it was a critical point in one of the soaps, and her being freezing cold was cutting in to her viewing pleasure. No, I don’t have x-ray vision, so I couldn't see through the curtain, but I know that’s what was happening. Then in that next moment, I’ve never been prouder to have a roommate — she sat up a little higher in her bed and said again, very matter of factly—”I said turn it back on. Right now. She needs it. And I mean right now.”

• A long silence was followed by sweet music to my ears …..”click”. And even though, the curtain was still drawn and I couldn’t really feel any of the air, I had a new attitude on life. I thought I would survive, even if it felt like a sauna, I would survive. My roommate had my back…..and the whole entourage with her knew better than to cross her. She was on my side.
  

As it turns out, I had someone else on my side too. The weather man. He chirps in to interrupt regular broadcasting to let us know that our viewing area is in for some serious weather events, thunderstorms and tornadoes. Why, you’ve never seen a room clear so fast in all your life. Everyone shouted their goodbyes to mother dear and hugged and what have you….and out the door they went. Thank you Lord, for your divine power to control a room as easy as you control the wind. I waited about 30 minutes, just to make sure they weren’t coming back or anything, and when the coast was clear, I quietly called my roommate's name….”Ms. Nettie?”……”yes”……”do you think it would be okay if I pulled this curtain back a little bit so that some of the air could come on across the room?....the curtain is blocking it.”…..”why, honey, you go right ahead, sure, that will be just fine.”…..now, I sit up and start yanking on me some gold privacy cloth…..and Ms. Nettie says.....”you sure that’s enough, open it all the way if you need to”……I love Ms. Nettie.

A couple hours later, the nurse that saw the fluid spew forth from my eyes in the form of tears, came in the room to check on us both. When she bent over close to my bed, with a smile on my face, I softly said…..”Ms. Nettie let me open the curtain and now I’m cooling off”. She smiled back and said wasn’t that sweet of her. Yes. Yes it was. The afternoon came and went. And the evening was sure to follow. Because that’s how days go. My mom brought my children to see me…..the first time I had seen them since Monday morning. And it was glorious. I was feeling better and realized that all along, I had been missing them more than I could imagine. And thus the "small mental breakdown of patient 514-a" was not so much due to the heat, but rather, my homesickness. The cozy four walls of my vacation spot had just about did me in......and that is something that no fluid bag or shot of the good stuff can help you with.

• But three big hugs from three little ones….and the world gets brighter in an instant.

Eventually, my family and friends, dropping in throughout the evening, had all came and went. Just me and the roommate and some cool air. Ms. Nettie and I have a few discussions about the weather man, tornadoes, the ages of my kids, my sweet husband, etc. We cut the chit-chat short and resume our regular scheduled, seperate, television shows. The later it gets, the more I wonder.... what time do we cut the lights out? I had three books, some magazines, my laptop…..I could stay up for days with the lights on, but I wanted to make sure I cut my light off when she did, no matter what. Because, although I’m sure I sounded a lot like the princess and the pea in part 1, I really am a pleaser. I hate confrontations, and I want everyone to get along. I am a fixer of sorts. I like a big happy room.....just generally I want it cool. :)

Anyway, my TV is off, but the late show arrives as I notice from her side of the room. I go ahead and get ready for bed and turn off all my lights. In a few minutes, she does the same. I realize it is pitch black inside the room, (just like I like it, dark and cool, think bat cave.) I fear that Ms. Nettie might not be able to see to get to the restroom if she needs it in the night. I holler through the curtain to see if she wants me to cut the entry light on right by the doorway, for a little visibility. No, she says, I can sleep better with it dark like this too.

• Oh, isn’t it wonderful. Clearly, I’m going to make it. All I have to do is close my eyes, take a visit to slumber city, and when I awake, it will be Thursday.......