I am in tears

10 November 2011 (Thursday), Day 29

When I got up in the morning, I had a headache, my heart was pounding 劇烈跳動 and I felt terrible.  My roommate started screaming the night before from 6pm till 5am this morning.  She had trouble breathing and a group of doctors and nurses swamped 蜂擁而上 the room.   

As I had not had a good sleep for two days,the doctors prescribed some strong pain killers which made me drowsy. I was extremely tired that I lost my appetite 失去胃口for dinner.  Lying in bed thinking I would have an early night, the screaming started.  She complained she could not breathe and she could not swallow 吞噬. Nurses came in and out to check her. They eventually called the doctors.  A big team came and the nurses had to remove the furniture in the room to accommodate 容納 all.  They brought all her files and even a mobile x-ray machine. As it turned out, she had been admitted for about 2 months (not a year as she had said).  She was not very clear in her mind.  When asked, her answers were almost always “I don’t know”. By the time the medical staff were gone, it was 10pm.  Then the usual male patient started yelling “go away”.  I felt terribly sorry for the nurses.  It was a nightmare to them too.  

By about midnight, the painkiller waned 減退 and I woke up to ask for more.  The nurse was very kind to also check how my roommate was doing and that woke her up. Then there were another five hours of screaming. There was some tranquility 寧靜 between half past five and half past six till the morning staff reported duty and started another busy day.  

I could not finish my breakfast and I felt stifled 窒息 staying in the room.  I went to the Day Room early to start my physio. The staff there noticed something wrong with me.  I was in tears, the first time since the accident, and told her I needed some sleep.  The nurses in the ward knew I had a horrible night and they were all sympathetic 感同情.  After physio, I went outside and sat in the sun for half an hour to get my sanity 理智 back. Nature can really heal.

The consulting doctor came every Thursday and asked me how I was going.  I told him I had sleep deprivation 剥削.  He was sympathetic and gave me good news that he would expedite 加快 my return home, hopefully in less than 2 weeks. Previously they thought they would discharge me after the cast on my right hand was removed.  As the situation in the ward and the room deteriorated 變壞, the best option 選擇 was to fix my house soonest possible and I would go home one-handed.

Credit to the nurses, they did a big move, re-assigning 重新調配 the rooms to the patients in the ward and my roommate was moved to a single room. The moving of patients and big cleaning of the rooms went on for hours until almost 5pm.  I could not stay in my room and found myself a chair in the Day Room to doze off 打瞌睡.

After the big clean up, they removed the MRSA label from my room and interestingly it was at this point that they got some swabs 化驗樣本 from me for MRSA testing. I must say I have problem understanding their sequence 次序 of work when it comes to infection control 傳染病控制.

At 10pm, I had another roommate.  She is huge, twice my size at least and a bit shorter. She could really snore 打鼾 and I think she probably lives on a farm.  When she sleeps, the animals sing with her.  The room became a barn 棚舍 filled with sounds from hogs 豬, chooks 雞, cows and various others.  And, she sleep-talks 說夢話 too. I was so tired that I managed to have a few hours’ sleep and stayed awake for a good chunk of the night.