Monday morning

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I have about an hour until the first visiting period so I thought I’d write a little about how my end of things has worked.

I was in a hotel Thursday and Friday nights. I’ve stayed in the Family Lounge Saturday & last night:

How I sleep is I pull another two-seater sofa front-to-front with this one and I have my chest & head on one, the rest of me on the other at a diagonal. Saturday night there was a family in here who had to watch TV all night REALLY loud. I wrapped a blanket over my ears & slept decently. Last night it was just me and Donna From Steubenville, who is the first ICU Family person I met. She brought me a banana after convincing me to let her bring something from the cafeteria on Friday. She also told me about the procedures, like using the phone & stuff. But I’ll get to that.

The lounge has food & beverage vending, coffee, a sink, etc. There are two seating areas, each with a TV. Yesterday both were tuned to the Steelers game of course. Oh and there were families who watched the game, then left. Half an hour before the last visitation period. I was like, “You can’t stay an extra thirty minutes and say ‘See ya?’” But hey, it’s a hard time for everyone.

The restroom has a large shower, laundry bins, etc.

That’s my stuff spread out around 8 a.m. I decided to get in there since there was only one other person. When I came out there were two people napping in recliners & they’d put the TV on. I’m like, they must’ve just come in, kicked back and gone to sleep b/c I’m not that long in the shower. As Beta can attest, I have to be fast or I run out of hot water at home

There are four visitation periods: 10-12, 2-4, 5-6 and 8:30-10. When there are a lot of people, everyone’s watching this clock and when it’s time, there’s a mad dash for the wall phone in the hall. You have to call before you can go back; there’s a secure door. If your patient is having a procedure, going for a test, etc. you won’t go back. It’s at the nurse’s discretion. I only didn’t go back the first night b/c he was getting a CAT scan. I called at 11:30 to say that they’d never told me he was back & they’d forgotten about me. So I got to go back for a while. He was sedated then.

So you call and get permission and you get to go back and visit for that period, 1-3 visitors at a time, also at the nurse’s discretion. Hawk is at a level where some family friends (his “other mother” and her husband) and I could all be with him at once. I usually wait a bit. I use the restroom so my hands are clean when I go back and yesterday morning when he had the breathing tube out, one of the first things he spoke to me was, “You’re five minutes late.” One of the last things he tends to say in a visiting time is, “When is the next visitation period?” Believe me, it’s all I can do not to run down the hall most of the time. Yesterday for the 10 a.m. I had a big doofy smile going on that I neither could nor wanted to suppress.

His room is very cold, mostly b/c he had a fever but his temp is almost back to normal (98.8 last I heard) so I wear a sweater and wrap a blanket around my shoulders when I’m back there (another reason I showered early b/c I want my hair dry-ish).

I usually go after the 10-12 visitation to get something to eat. He wants me to tell him what I’m eating so if I don’t eat & then lie about it, he’ll know. I’ve had two decent meals the last two nights. I had salad for lunch the other day and a salad and a little turkey yesterday. I’ve also snacked on Honey Nut Cheerios and for breakfast I finally had the banana that Steubenville Donna brought me on Friday night. I eat dinner after the 5-6 visitation b/c that 6-8:30 wait is long. That’s also when I call Jed & update him. I usually do a cell phone group update and an e-mail update after lunch. I call Bets at 10:45 which is a whole nother entry.

I think I’m going to grab a coffee here and let the computer cool off so I can lock it up. I usually get online in the evenings but if he’s moved to a regular floor, I may be up there for a bit. If I can’t get out tonight b/c of weather, I’ll camp out here again and head out in the morning. I probably won’t blog again until I get home but I may send an e-mail update if they put him in a regular room.

Cheers

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