I’m still in the hospital.. ugh :(. I have been her for two weeks and two days, and I will be here for another week, for sure, and maybe a noter week or two after that. It wouldn’t be so bad if I was allowed to leave my room. I am trapped in this 12 by 12 room all day, everyday. Even prisoners in maximum security get an hour a day outside.

What’s happened since my last Hospital Chronicle post? Oh the shower incident! I wanted to take a shower and all nice and clean, but the doctors weren’t having it. Every time before this I took a shower just fine. I had trouble with one because I was out of breath and my oxygen dipped low, but that’s about it. The doctor came in (or resident I should say), and told me they were worried about me taking a shower and not having my oxygen. This was first I have ever heard of someone having a problem with me showering. Eventually, after lots of debate and me saying I needed to get clean and I didn’t want to take a sponge bath, they agreed that I could shower with my oxygen and while my dad was here so he could hear if I needed help. Keep in mind there are also help buttons and strings to pull in there if you have an emergency. Well the nurse came in and didn’t like that idea, so she made me keep the door open and she was right outside of it the whole time. It was a mess, and ever since all of that stuff happened to me in the foster homes I have always been very modest and private about my body.

A couple of days ago, I woke up at about 3 in the morning, and I went to the bathroom and when I came out there was a security guard standing there in the dark. It scared me at first, and he must have noticed that he startled me because the first thing he said was “Don’t be alarmed ma’am, everything is okay, but a car rolled out of it’s parking spot and it was registered to someone with the same last name as you, do you know if anyone in your family has this type of car?” (He obviously explained the type of car to me, but that’s not important right now. I told my dad about it the next day, and he was very upset that a male security guard was in here in the middle of the night, alone with me, and didn’t even introduce himself, so he made a complaint. The head of security came in later to speak do my dad all about it, and once we got it all settled my dad and he were chatting. He had mentioned that he had a long day, because he had a “really really really really really tough patient, and lets just say, that window there? (he said while pointing to my window), “it’s gone.” The patient had tried to escape… so there’s some excitement!

Oh, and this morning, my nurse came in and brought me my pain medicine and an area of my chest happened to start hurting really bad so I kind of gripped it, and the pills fell out of my little medicine cup that was in my hand. She saw it and said “I don’t want you to dump out the medicine over there.” Like I did it on purpose! I have never met someone who would ask for pain meds and then not want to take them! I also didn’t want her to go write that in her notes that I’m dumping out my medicine. That would look very noncompliant.

Ugh… people these days, I swear. Of course not everything is bad here. I get to be kind of  lazy and have the nurses get stuff for me (like milk), and I get a lot of visitors, meet new people, get get-well gifts… There is always an upside to everything, not to mention I am getting slowly better (just a tad bit).

Well,  wish me luck everybody. Hopefully I get out of here before my birthday on March 15th. I have spent one birthday in the hospital, but it was the day I got discharged so it wasn’t too bad. And the hospital staff brought me a big barbie head that you can do her hair and put makeup on her (mind you it was my 7th or 9th birthday). I remember being up late at night and I was staring at the clock, and once it hit 12:01 I screamed and was so excited. One of my RTs I had at the time came in with a slice of cake and said “Happy Birthday little one.” Keep me in your thought everyone.

–Liz