Some Notes From ICU
I heard that woman visiting last night around 10p.m. That's way outside of visiting hours but they seem to have severely relaxed the restrictions, iron-clad only six months ago. Her husband wasn't complaining (intubation makes that difficult) but she was still angry. She'll teach this hospital a lesson, no doubt. I barely have a curtain blocking what has now become my regular "room" which sits right across from the quarantine room. That one has a fucking door which this damned woman won't let them shut lest they miss any of her tirade. I've had so little sleep and so many opiates over the past... 60-some hours that I nodded off for a few hours. Twice.
As I was awakened by the early morning arterial blood draw and other checks and meds, I heard them wheeling in fresh meat from a chopper. Down here you can't here the air transport -- the helipad is on the other side of the building -- but you learn the sounds of everything here. Every beep, buzz, klaxon, chime, tone, word, call, each one has a very clear and specific meaning, and the only noises which aren't them are either the oft-repeated sounds of staff at work or the random noise of the patients.
As I was awakened by the early morning arterial blood draw and other checks and meds, I heard them wheeling in fresh meat from a chopper. Down here you can't here the air transport -- the helipad is on the other side of the building -- but you learn the sounds of everything here. Every beep, buzz, klaxon, chime, tone, word, call, each one has a very clear and specific meaning, and the only noises which aren't them are either the oft-repeated sounds of staff at work or the random noise of the patients.
And through the activity of hooking him up to the machinery -- EKG, central line, a cannula or two, finger clip, femoral artery tap, catheter -- one doc was handling the preliminary intake questioning.
Do you drink?
No.
Blood sugar 1000!
So you're diabetic.
What?
Blood sugar.
O2 saturation 74!
Oh that. I think so.
Type I or Type II?
What?
Were you always diabetic?
No
Type II
How often do you measure your blood sugar?
Measure?
Which insulin do you use? Humulin? Lispro? Aspart? Glargin? Detemir?
No idea.
How do you take it?
Huh?
How much on what schedule?
Schedule?
How often do you take your insulin?
Wen I feel like it.
But you don't measure your blood sugar?
Why should I?
This is why we can't have nice things. My nurse chose this moment to return with a fresh pee bottle and run back off for my morning syringe of pain relief. Coincidence or divine intervention?
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