There are yet more outings today.
The bag-o-urine, always hanging from some strut or another near the foot of the bed, meticulously measured, observed, emptied and tested for 6 weeks, is emptied one last time and the Foley catheter, the bag’s connection to the wellspring of Aaron’s bladder, is taken out. Over the last 6 weeks, when Aaron was in the twilight between awake and not, he was often concerned that his urge would make for an embarrassing situation. We had to remind him more than once that he did not need excuse himself, wait till we left, or get up to go. Hopefully those subliminal reminders will be quickly forgotten.
The trachea tube, having been replaced twice by successively smaller diameter tubes, is now completely taken out. The tracheostomy hole, created by a small vertical slit pried open and held open by the tube, begins to close by itself. It will slowly close over the next few days. Would that all plumbing were so conveniently self-repairable.
While the blood drive is underway in Ojai (our deepest thanks and gratitude to all), Aaron consumes (via the last remaining IV line) another couple units of packed red cells. His hemoglobin, always low, has been dropping steadily for the last few days so he needs a pick-me-up.
As the blood is finishing, Gabi arrives from Ojai with a stack of DVD’s and a marvelous Philips 7” DVD portable player from New Leads. Wow! Thanks! The player (which also receives and supplies composite video), together with a set of portable Logitech speakers, enables re-rigging the ancient hospital TV for better sound. (Another difference between hotels and hospitals is found in their respective TV’s. Hospital TV’s were excavated from the early Paleolithic, while hotel TV’s tend to be of more recent historical origin. It’s not enough that the hospital TV is ancient: it’s sound is further degraded by it having been hijacked from the TV’s bad speakers and re-routed to play though the nurse call button. When was the last time the sound quality of a nurse call button was reviewed by an audiophile magazine?)
We are grateful beyond measure that we are complaining of such things.
