Choices

My travelling partner was not feeling well Monday. Her blood pressure was up when I checked it the other day, by machine and manually. She came in because we are short of staff. "This vertigo won't go away." she said. Yesterday, it was so bad, she went to the ER. They admitted her.

He was one of our regulars. A mustachioed man with a syrupy accent so heavy, I was occasionally called in to translate (because I'm good at translating) for the new nurses who don't recognize the  cadence and drawl from his part of the South. One nurse I worked with had known from the time he was injured. He knew our programs so well he could have taught them, she said. We were the safety net: if he got sick, he always came to us (even drove himself this time).

But he was more than sick:  he was septic, so the Hotel was not the place for him. We sent him on to Washington for more acute care, and he got worse. He survived some crazy cardiac stunts, but the last procedure set off a cascade from which he did not survive. His car sat on the parking lot when I arrived the other morning. The family came and picked it up yesterday.

Today, I read this story, passed along from one of my coworkers. He didn't want to live like many folks do at the Hotel. He just wanted to die, and with his family, he did. It was so sad because he chose to leave when his wife was  pregnant with his first child. "He'll never hold their child.", the article said.

He'll never see that child, either, or make a difference in his/her life. That is the part, to me, which is the saddest. I have worked with rehab patients who have raised children (yes, they need help), and they do parent them. They do discipline them. They do care, even if they cannot lift a finger.

The choices we make can change things forever.

Another week done

Hooray! Give me the weekend, even if it's colder than when the week started. If it's sunny (like they say it will be), I will rejoice.

I have seen way too many clouds lately, in the sky and at the Hotel.

One of my old regulars came back this week. He's sick. He tried to stay well he told me, and now it seems, his body's giving up. He sick and he's scared.

Another regular came back right in the "season" as he calls it on his farm. His family misses him and calls him with reports. Even the dog misses him.

Finally, I got to finish the day off by helping some of the case management folks review files for Hotel admissions. I learned a lot about syndromes that I never knew existed. One started when the patient's main complaint was "I keep falling".  He fell one time, however, and couldn't get up.

And it's looking like the start of the "season" for me, too. One relative (who was hospitalized last year a long time) is going to the ER tonight. I hope it all goes well. I'm not sure if I'll be a good supporter this year or not. I'm drained after everything that happened last year. It was a wild roller coaster ride.

More to come...

Hootin' an' hollerin'

Yes, the March Madness continues. The woo-hoos, and "Go big blue" chants were echoing in the hallways recently. Everyone who can get out of bed is getting into the fever of March Madness, and the ones who can't are still getting involved. One of our normally needy characters was up in his wheelchair and he actually got his roommate some pizza while a group of folks were watching the basketball games recently. It's made the last couple of shifts very pleasant, after some craziness late last week.

Spring is still trying to come back, and so are some of our regular visitors, just like the famous swallows. One is marooned at another facility waiting to get in, since we don't have an isolation room (very common story at the Hotel) for his/her bug. Another is getting ready to move across the country, so he/she's coming to us for a check up before heading out on the big trip.

And it'll be fun in the RehabRN house soon...party time for Dahey. Bubba is very excited, since the birthday candles will be out again.

Stay tuned...

The holiday season

The holidays can be both happy and sad at the Hotel.

I was a good person today. After a marathon cookie-baking session with Bubba, I delivered some plates to my coworkers at work, just in time before they got ready for their own holiday lunch. Everyone seemed happy to see them.

I also got to talk to a few folks and I found out one of our regular characters died suddenly. Mr. F. and I got along really well, even if I wasn't always assigned to take care of him. He was a very smart guy, with an actual job, and he died with his proverbial boots on at work as he was getting ready to leave for the day. I'll miss those times when he'd ask me about the clues in the New York Times crossword puzzle in the newspaper. He got most of them, but he was always amazed that I could usually find the one he was missing (thanks to the internet). Overall, he was a decent person and never wanted to be a bother to anyone. While I'm sad, I'm not surprised he'd made a quick exit. He went the way he always said he wanted to go.

The holidays will be upon us soon and I'm very excited to see what happens. Stay tuned.