im-patients

my mom was surprised this morning to find that i'd gotten mr smear and his lunchbox ready for school before she'd arrived. dropping him off was fun (his friend had dressed himself and his outfit choices were highly amusing), and the first hour at work felt productive. i was planning on calling the hospital to find out when visiting hours were, but before i did i received a call from a visiting rabbi who'd decided to make an early round... turns out gd had had an awful night, and one nurse in particular had been downright mean to her (with witnesses, fortunately a really kind male nurse stepped in).

my team quickly stepped up to take over from my on-call duties, and i stayed with gd until i had to return to the office for an interview debrief at which point the rabbi was kind enough to come back and stay with her.

of course, the mean nurse was put in charge of the move from the ICU to gd's ward, and took the opportunity to remove gd's self-administered pain-meds which she was supposed to have for at least the day, and once removed they can't be re-inserted.

i chatted briefly with my manager on my way out, he told me a horrorspital story about how he effectively saved his wife's from her surgeon and nursing staff's negligence

i picked up gd's pillow and returned to the hospital, helped her interface with the nursing staff for a couple of hours and then went back home to pick up mr and the nanny, drop her off at the bus station and bring mr smear to see his mother - for less than a minute, at our own risk because he's too young to be allowed in the ward...

my mom was a trooper, she came to pick up mr smear then turned around to bring cough syrup, agreeing to take mr smear to sleep at her place while i stayed to keep gd company, read to her from the ocean at the end of the lane, assist her, encourage her, chastise her, and spend the last couple of hours refusing to leave until she had some confidence that the night was going to be okay... which the staff did not make easy.

on the way home my uber driver, omar, told me about his daughter. born 810g in the wrong hospital, she needed to be transported to one with the right equipment and picked up a virus that prevented her from being able to use her hands. but she's clever, and she's a compensator, and by holding a pencil between her palm and her cheek she writes more neatly than any of the kids in her class. thank you, omar and mrs omar, for being phenomenal parents.

i'm exhausted, i'm wired, i'm still struggling with my sinuses and throat. oh! spring has arrived... it's quite possible my body's been telling me that for over a week already.