Back in the last part of 2009, I was going to a chiropractor to see if my lower back pain were capable of being relieved by inducing a different type of pain throughout my entire body by being prodded and poked and stretched and compressed. To get an idea of where my bones were, I was x-rayed in the area of my lower back. The bones were OK, and in good shape for my age, but there was a slight buildup of arterial plaque in behind my stomach. Nothing to be worried about, but something to watch, I was told. So on my next visit to my PCP, I informed Dr. Payne about this, and he ordered an ultrasound of my everything. The results came back indicating that indeed, my lower arteries were fine, but I had an 80% blockage in the right side carotid artery of my neck. So, I went to a vascular surgeon, who did a cat scan and confirmed that I did have a life threatening problem that needed surgery soon. The operation was scheduled for the second week of January.
Brother Tom dropped me off at the Middle Tennessee Medical Center at 5 AM one morning, and by 7:30 I was opened up from my ear to the lower middle part of my neck. Fortunately, I slept through the process. When I had recovered enough, at about 1 PM, I was moved to the ICU where I was placed in a bed in a room with 2 other beds, separated by curtains. It seems that all of the private rooms were filled. No big deal, I thought, I’m only here for one night. I’ll be gone first thing in the morning. The bed to my right seemed to be unoccupied, but the bed to the left was filled by a rather large black lady, who had a steady stream of visitors. For 3 hours, all I heard was, ‘Oh Dear Lord, I’m so sorry’, or ‘Please Sweet Jesus, forgive me.’ Every time a new visitor arrived, the plea for forgiveness started over. Finally, around 5 PM, several policemen and a couple of paramedics showed up, rolled her on to a gurney and hauled her away. I guess I’ll never know what she did that was so bad that she needed divine intervention..
So now, I’m all alone in my space. I’ve got all kind of wires and tubes attached to me. I became familiar with the purpose of a catheter. Since I had been involved with the repair of most of the types of equipment I was hooked up to, all I could do was pray that the machines didn’t come from our shop. I had so many things attached, the only position I could lie in was on my back. Since I cannot sleep on my back, I knew it was going to be a long night. But with the right drugs, that shouldn’t be a problem.
About 6 PM, I saw them rolling some one into the empty bed on my right. They pulled to curtain closed, but that didn’t stop me from hearing everything. It seems they had found this guy early that morning lying on the sidewalk covered with ice. Being it was the middle of January, and we had just had a snow ‘event’. It was very cold at night. After the paramedics had left, a male nurse came in to check on the guy. It went something like this-
Nurse- I understand they found you frozen this morning over by the Walmart. What happened?
Patient- I had been staying at the Mission in Nashville for a few nights, but I got rotated out. So I came to Murfreesboro looking for a friend. I couldn’t find him, so I found this shed behind this business and I popped the lock off, and went in to spend the night. I laid down in my sleeping bag and the next thing I knew, the water pipe to the sink above me burst open and I got soaked. So I went outside and laid down again, then I woke up in the hospital this morning.
Nurse- Had you been drinking?
Patient- Yes, I usually have a bottle of Vodka every day, if I can afford it. And I had a bottle yesterday.
Nurse- You know, when they brought you in, your body temperature was down to 92 degrees. They’ve been warming you up all day so they could bring you over here.
Patient- I know I was pretty cold last night.
Nurse- There will be a doctor in a little late to talk to you about what will be happening to you tomorrow.
And that was the beginning of my night in Hell. All night long, he could not stay still, so he kept knocking the leads attached to him off, which in turn, would set off the alarm ding- ding of the patient monitor. Of course I was hooked up too, so I couldn’t get up to go turn them off. About 2 AM, the real fun started. “Nurse, Nurse, I have to do Number 2’ So the nurse came in and gave him a bed pan. ‘I can’t use this; I need to go to the toilet’. ‘I’m sorry, we can’t unhook you, this will have to do’. So the nurse helped and he did his business. Then the smell started. It was awful, and I could do nothing except lay there. I called for the nurse, and asked for someone to spray the area, but no one ever did.
Then about 3:30, it began again. ‘Nurse, I have to do #2 again, real bad!’ ‘Nurse,please. If you don’t help me I’m getting up and using the bath room.’ ‘Nurse, it hurts!’ ‘Nurse, never mind. I messed my bed.’ Oh the smell was terrible, and I was trapped. I would’ve gone and beat the crap out of him, but it was too late for that. The nurse came in and spent the next 45 minutes cleaning and changing the bed. After the first episode, I had begged my nurse for some good drugs, so I was on morphine every hour and a Percoset every 2 hours. I began to not really care about my homeless friend and his problems. And so I drifted towards dawn.
Around 7:30, my doctor came in and checked all of the charts and looked at my neck, ripping the bandage off in the process, and certified me as ready to leave, as soon as the catheter was removed. Ah!, the catheter. I had forgotten about that little tube. And who will be removing it? Why the young nurse, of course. And with no show of emotion on either one’s part, she quite professionally did. I was pleased, now I could leave.
Brother Tom picked me up and I went home to recover. I have very little feeling in the lower right side of my face, which may or may not come back. It’s not a bother, just a little weird when shaving. I also have a nice scar that looks like I lost a knife fight with some bad guys. But my plumbing is back in good shape for a while.
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