Another sleep-deprived night. The first night my vitals--blood pressure, blood sugar, temperature, oxygen--were checked every hour. The last two nights, every other hour. But that doesn't tell the whole story.
The insulin infusion is set to alarm every two hours to remind the nurse to check my blood sugar and then adjust the infusion setting. So sometimes the alarm rings for 20 minutes before she responds. I asked the charge nurse why the alarm can't ring on the nurse's watchband rather than in my ears. Oh, no, that's not possible, even though the nurse assigned to me only has one other patient--the kidney transplant patient next door to me.
Also, the damn heart monitor had to be changed out because it was constantly alarming for no reason. Then the replacement started alarming every 10 minutes. Finally someone had the bright idea to shut the alarm off.
Then the nurse had to clean my neck shunt of old blood at 4 in the morning. She took blood from the shunt at 5, but that was too early, so she had to take it again at 6. In between her checks of my blood sugar at midnight, 2, 4, and 6, the nurse's assistant came in on the off hours to check the rest of the vitals. Why couldn't these things be coordinated?
I have complained mightily to the doctors. Sleep deprivation is antithetical to health. It is during sleep that the body heals. A sleep-deprived person is open to stress, infection, and illness. And I am especially susceptible to all of these now that I'm on immune suppressants.
What's more, I have seen serious lapses in cleanliness, and I've called them out. I don't care if they think I'm a complaining bitch. The nurse comes into my room, washes her hand, puts on gloves, then begins touching the door, the cabinets, the computer, then wants to touch me. So I ask her to change her gloves before she does that. The worst was the gal who helped me wash up yesterday. I have so many lines and tubes attached to me that it's very hard to maneuver. She took a washcloth to my catheter and wiped around down there, then took the same washcloth to clean off the lead to my heart monitor, which was dangling at my knee, then to my horror, she puts the very same washcloth back inside me!
Yesterday I thoroughly cleaned my room, something I've taken to doing as soon as I feel up to it in the hospital. I got a canister of Chlorox beach wipes, put on gloves, and started wiping everything down--chairs, bed rails, cabinets, drawers, sinks, door knobs, light switches. I also picked garbage off the floor. You can't count on housekeeping to do any more than changing out the trash receptacles and taking away the dirty gowns.
Add to this, the bed is not at all comfortable. I was in it the first two nights and got a bad back ache. A nurse said this is partly due to the way a body is splayed during surgery. The arms are hooked above the head so that the surgeons don't have any loose skin or folds to deal with. On Thursday night I was more comfortable walking the hallways than lying in bed. Last night I tried the recliner. It was better, but still produced a back ache around 4. I could really use a good massage.
I finally got something by mouth yesterday night--two cups of beef broth. This morning, I had jello, grape juice, and chicken broth for breakfast. Such a treat after days of not eating or drinking.
One other thing: There was some thought that I might have had a heart attack while in surgery. Tests were run Thursday to check the level of a heart enzyme that is released during an attack. Thankfully, my level was normal.
