Sleeping Sydney
By my count, Nyel (and I) have spent more than 40 days and nights here in the cardiac unit of Emanuel Hospital – usually in clumps of five or six days in a row – since last October. I jokingly think of it (can you jokingly think?) as a Five Star Hospital with Medical Benefits, the latter part being exclusively for Nyel, of course.
Often, as in now, he is simply waiting – waiting for meds to take effect so that he won’t bleed to death or have a stroke during whatever procedure is needed. The wait-time is wholly dependent on Nyel’s system and its ‘willingness’ to interact positively with whatever plan the doctors (yes, plural; this time, three) decide.
So, yesterday it looked like the procedure that he’s waiting for might happen Sunday. The cardiologist mentioned that, if not by then, it would have to be Tuesday. No ‘elective’ procedures requiring an anesthesiologist on Monday. Say what?
It has to do with Emanuel being a full-status Level I Trauma Center – one of only two in Oregon. As such, it will be on some sort of alert status Monday because of the huge influx of eclipse-watchers who are converging in Oregon as we speak. From our standpoint (and that of Nyel’s doctors) it’s one of those ‘timing is everything’ situations. All hospital facilities will be on standby for the possibility of serious, traumatic need.
Nyel and the Morning Crossword
As it turns out, though, Nyel’s lab numbers looked excellent this morning. His nurse paged ‘Dr. God’ who has scheduled his ‘procedure’ (a TEE or Transesophageal Echocardiography) for eleven o’clock. Today! Granted, depending on what is found, there may be additional procedures, but maybe, just maybe, those can begin sooner and we can get out of here earlier.
However… we certainly are not hoping for Nyel’s discharge to be before Wednesday. For one thing, we’ll need more gas before we can drive home and, according to the news, gasoline in the area is scarce. In fact, some service stations are closed until replenishment can occur. Besides which, traffic conditions are likely to be nightmarish on all highways leaving Portland. At this point, anyway, we are content to remain here, safe and sound, waiting for Nyel’s tune-up to be finalized and for all his doctors to sign off on his new out-patient plan.
Who knew that the eclipse madness would be affecting us in this way? We were absolutely content to give it all a miss in blissfully peaceful Oysterville. Just us and the chickens… Once again, a lesson in never counting them before you see the whites of their eyes.
Looking at pictures of Prineville and because of all the terrorism going on in Europe, it occurred to me that Americans have located themselves in a swath across the country that could be handy for a group seeking to kill lots of us. Sad that this is how I think these days.