Nyel’s Room

To paraphrase the chorus from singer/songwriter Jill Trenholm’s “Looking Forward” – Nyel and I are definitely ‘looking forward to looking back on all this.’  As laudatory as I try to be about Portland’s Legacy Emanuel Hospital, it’s still not a perfect answer to being a home-away-from-home.

I’m not complaining, mind you.  There isn’t a single place in all the world that we’d rather be right now, given Nyel’s current circumstances.  I can say in all honesty that ‘home is where the heart is’ and, for the time being, Nyel’s big wonky heart needs to be here with the doctors and nurses who know him and his history.  Kindly, they put up with me being part of the package.  Yesterday, Dr. God even thought to wish me a Happy Birthday!

Guest Cot

The nurses supply me with a cot and bedding, provide me with coffee now and then, and are friendly and informative about procedures and plans.  Meals are available (at a slight charge) if I choose to order from the Guest Menu and are delivered with a smile – never mind that they are dreadful and arrive lukewarm-to-cold.  (Oh.  I guess I lied.  That sounded a lot like a complaint.)

So, as long as I’ve opened that floodgate (so to speak) I will say that I do have one rather serious objection to our accommodations this time – no bathroom in this room.  I don’t know the original purpose of the rooms in this section of the hospital, but I do not think they were for overnight stays. However, Nyel was admitted with little advanced notice and we are grateful that they had space at all.

Yesterday

There is a nearby bathroom for ‘Patients Only’ use, but I have been asked to use the nearest public restroom.  “Out the door to the left, another left into the main hallway, go on down through the next unit and there is a restroom on your left.”  One hundred long strides or an indeterminate number of mincing little gotta-go gotta-go steps, depending on the urgency of nature’s call.  For those necessary middle-of-the-night trips, it’s less than ideal.

However, I doubt that they’ll be giving me one of those “How was your stay?” surveys.  I probably would remain silent, anyway.  I am way too grateful that I’m allowed to be here – taking up space and asking too many questions – to even dream of objecting to any of it.  I well remember the days when even relatives were kicked out at the end of visiting hours.

Right now, it’s looking like we might be headed back to Oysterville on Friday with a return hospital visit planned for a few weeks down the line.  I’m vowing to appreciate everything about home in extra measure – stocking up on all those taken-for-granted amenities to tide me over during the next visit to this home-away-from-home.