I’m going to attempt to paint a picture for you of my night last night in the IMC (Intermediate Care Unit). While this sounds like a top notch facility, it is in truth merely a bunch of beds with curtains around them. Like I said before, think of the WWII era hospitals. It’s their overflow unit for when they are slammed, like last night. It appears that these girls are just here for the night for observation…no one else seems to be a “resident” like me.
So sit back, close your eyes (oh wait, then you can’t read it) and enjoy the show.
As you lay down on your oh-so-comfortable birthing bed that is really not made for overnight sleeping and turn off the three inch television, you will truly begin to realize the amount of loud vomiting coming from the “room” to your left. In between retching, this girl’s throaty cough is nonstop.
Perhaps you are able to drift off to lala land for a few minutes. This is not for long, because the nurse turns on the overhead lights every time she checks someone’s vitals. Naturally, vital checks can’t be done all at the same time. Oh no! These must be done on the patients at differing intervals throughout the night so as to give the nurses a bit of a break.
When your “room” is right next to the bathroom like mine and the environmentally unconscious patients continually leave the light on after using it, additional light is shed onto your precious three feet of living space. At least this way you can scan your “room” to make sure nothing has been stolen.
Of course, sleeping is simply not an option when the girl who seems to be able to go to the bathroom on her own needs help with something every time she is in there. Instead of pulling the handy red nurse cord that has been installed in all hospital bathrooms, this girl chooses to scream, “Help Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” at the top of her lungs as if the toilet is attacking her bum. This happened at least four times overnight.
Throw in there my own vital checks and the apparent need to do a fetal monitor at 2 a.m. (this has never been done in the middle of the night before…) and I can pretty safely say that last night was not a good night’s sleep. When I’m on the Mag, I expect it. I just wish that when I’m not, I could catch up a bit! Here’s hoping some rooms become available this morning and I will not have to sleep in here again tonight.
***I hope you enjoy my humor. I worry that sometimes my tone doesn’t come through, but then I remind myself that it’s my blog and if people take something the wrong way, they can just stop reading! For myself though, I like writing things in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. Sometimes, all you can do is laugh!
So sit back, close your eyes (oh wait, then you can’t read it) and enjoy the show.
As you lay down on your oh-so-comfortable birthing bed that is really not made for overnight sleeping and turn off the three inch television, you will truly begin to realize the amount of loud vomiting coming from the “room” to your left. In between retching, this girl’s throaty cough is nonstop.
Perhaps you are able to drift off to lala land for a few minutes. This is not for long, because the nurse turns on the overhead lights every time she checks someone’s vitals. Naturally, vital checks can’t be done all at the same time. Oh no! These must be done on the patients at differing intervals throughout the night so as to give the nurses a bit of a break.
When your “room” is right next to the bathroom like mine and the environmentally unconscious patients continually leave the light on after using it, additional light is shed onto your precious three feet of living space. At least this way you can scan your “room” to make sure nothing has been stolen.
Of course, sleeping is simply not an option when the girl who seems to be able to go to the bathroom on her own needs help with something every time she is in there. Instead of pulling the handy red nurse cord that has been installed in all hospital bathrooms, this girl chooses to scream, “Help Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” at the top of her lungs as if the toilet is attacking her bum. This happened at least four times overnight.
Throw in there my own vital checks and the apparent need to do a fetal monitor at 2 a.m. (this has never been done in the middle of the night before…) and I can pretty safely say that last night was not a good night’s sleep. When I’m on the Mag, I expect it. I just wish that when I’m not, I could catch up a bit! Here’s hoping some rooms become available this morning and I will not have to sleep in here again tonight.
***I hope you enjoy my humor. I worry that sometimes my tone doesn’t come through, but then I remind myself that it’s my blog and if people take something the wrong way, they can just stop reading! For myself though, I like writing things in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. Sometimes, all you can do is laugh!
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