When I arrived at the hospital ER last Saturday evening, I was quickly pushed in a wheel chair into a tiny room. I couldn’t see a lot of the area, but I could hear several things.
Hurried footsteps pass,
The sounds of one in distress,
Muted voices speak.
Things were very active in the ER. Folks popped in and out — each on a mission each handling it with competent confidence. From time to time, a child would cry next door.
Shortly after midnight, I was moved to a room on the third floor. After a series of interactions with hospital staff, the night settled into a pattern.
It was quiet. No, it wasn’t — not really. There was always the low sound of moving air circulating through the duct work. The seconds were marked — each one by a clack from the clock on the wall. In the stillness of the night it seemed loud. (It wasn’t.) About every 72 seconds (yes, I timed it), the machine that regulated the flow on my IV would cycle (Ahhruuum). Those three sounds were constant with each following its own pattern.
Periodically beeps would come from a patient monitor in the adjacent room. Occasionally warning alarms would sound at the nurses station just across the hallway from my open door.
Around 2 AM I heard violent coughing from somewhere down the hall. This was followed by hurried, but quiet, footsteps. Then subdued voices speaking urgently. Nothing more heard from there.
At 2:30 AM I was tired of just laying in bed so I stood beside the bed. Then I heard that warning alarm from the nurses station. Immediately [almost] I had company. It was the nurse wanting to know if I was okay. For some reason, it was my monitor that set off the alarm.
Every couple of hours folks would come to read vital signs or to draw blood. So, even though I didn’t sleep for more than a minute or two at a time, I was not bored with all that company.
One of the staffers that visited me that night told me a story. She had two brothers. When they were children, the boys discovered that they could save a walk to the bathroom if they peed through the screen at the open window in their bedroom. Their dog must have thought it was a good idea, because he started doing it too. The mother wondered why there was a yellow streak on the side of the house. Probably more information that you needed.
