Our day on the medical floor progressed slowly. I missed my husband, who was faithfully keeping the household running & caring for our 2-year-old. I repeatedly thanked God that it had not been Shannon (the 2-year-old), because she would have been really, really hard to manage.
The most important task a postoperative GI patient must accomplish is to restore bowel sounds and movement, and to do this, she must get out of bed and move. If the patient is a small person, woe be it to that small person’s mother, whose responsibility it will be to get the patient up and moving. Jocelyn did not want to get up. As they say here in Texas, she was “feeling puny.” She fought every effort to move her out of bed. Finally, I tried a different tactic. “Did you know that this hospital has arts and crafts?”
“Arts and crafts!!?!” She was all ears.
“Yes, but we have to go up to the 16th floor to do them.”
Never have I seen anyone transform from pitiful lump to energetic child so quickly. Out the door we went, IV pole in tow. The 16th floor did not have many departments open, and J was mad and disappointed. As we entered the elevator, she whined, “I wanted to paint!” Well, who was in that elevator, but the same Child Life girl we had seen in the ER. She went out of her way to bring us a paint set, brushes, and a wooden figurine of a fairy princess. I was so impressed with her professionalism and kindness.
When we returned to the floor, J latched on to a pink kiddie car and a green dinosaur on wheels, and she amused herself by rolling around the large unit, chattering away. After a while, she grew tired from all her exertions, and she was soon snoring peacefully in her bed. The lunch tray with her requested burger had arrived, but she was too tired to care. I pulled the blinds and settled in for a nap. My whole body ached from our night of broken sleep. I had just relaxed and was feeling my body turning to lead when a knock came at the door. It was the chaplain. I wondered how she could barge in like that when the lights were out and we were obviously sleeping. Then it suddenly became clear–as she bumped the bed with a red and white cane–that she was completely blind. I forgave her for interrupting us on the spot.
Tom
Christy
