Countdown to Kidneys Being Included.......

Friday, March 5, 2010

The roommate and family from HELL

Okay, so I have this sweet little old lady for a roommate initially. But for whatever reason she left. So I have about 2 hours of the room to myself with Chris and Susie. And then, just when I thought being as sick as I was, was as bad as it could get, I got a new roommate. She was a package deal. She came complete with a large, foul mouthed disgusting family, which made me decide I had died and gone to hell. By this point I am doing plasmapheresis treatments, which is where a machine removes all of your plasma and gives you someone elses plasma. It is also referred to as plasma exchanges. The treatments are similar to a blood transfusion only with a huge machine that they brought to my tiny hospital room, which was now the place of a very dysfunctional family reunion. The treatments were bad enough, but my roommates made it worse. The poor patient had poor/no bowel and bladder control and was dying. Her family would come and stay in that room all day and night until they were made to leave, ate her food, danced to music on the TV, watched their ghetto TV shows, cussed like sailors and talk very descriptively about the poor old patients bowel movements. It was horrible. They even took my potty chair at one point to use as an extra chair! I kept begging for a private room but none were available, so the nurses and doctors put me on a list. They made really good efforts to get me a private room but I had to be patient. So, I continue for a couple days, seeing doctors and having the plasma treatments and praying just for a private room.

Then one night all hell broke loose. I hadn't eaten anything in over a week. I was being kept alive by an IV. But on this night, my tray had chocolate pudding and it looked good. So, for the first time in over a week I try to eat. I know Chris was in the room with me but I can't remember if Susie was there. I was heavily medicated. Anyway, in the middle of eating my pudding I hear one of my roommates family members say really loud, "That pudding looks just like Grandma's shit!" That's when I lost it. I am sick as a dog probably dying myself and I'll be dammed if I am going to die with this going on around me. So, I get out of my hospital bed for the first time in several days while wearing my hospital gown, grab all of my belongings and walk down the hall to the nurses station. I then find an empty chair at the nurses station and plop myself down in their chair with probably a very crazy look in my eyes. One of the nurses very sweetly said, Mrs. Ziegler, is everything okay? I said No! I am not going back into that room! I am sick, probably dying and I cannot get better in that environment. She was very sweet and said I would have to wait in my room until a private room became available. I told her "NO, I will sit right here in this chair until a private room became available but under no circumstances would I go back into that room with that crazy family" and I began crying hysterically. So, I moved myself out of my hospital room and sat at the nurses station. And I was prepared to stay there. I felt like death, but I wasn't going down without a fight! Well, miraculously about an hour later a private room came open. I caught word of it and literally moved my chair outside the door of this private room "guarding" it until housekeeping cleaned it. I think Chris and Susie thought I had lost my mind! Chris had to go back into the crazy family room to get a few things and as he was leaving one of the family members yelled to him, " See ya Mother f'er!!!!" Oh well, I had a private room!

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