Day 3

Video of Day 3 (Interview)

Wednesday, Day 3

Today was hard. When they took my vitals around 4:00 a.m., I had a fever. They sent me down immediately for a chest x-ray and found fluid in my lungs. To combat the pneumonia, I’m on an antibiotic that makes me feel so sick to my stomach. They wanted to stop the morphine drip so they could take out my catheter, but I was not dealing well without drugs, and they decided to put me back on it.

They want me to cough to clear out my lungs, but it hurts too badly. I opt, instead to practice deep breathing with the blow-o-meter. I’m supposed to blow into this thing about a million times an hour. Everyone asks me if I’ve been using it. It’s difficult. My breathing is pretty shallow.

As crappy as I feel, this really beautiful thing happened. One of my nurses told me that a year ago she had been in the hospital, on this floor, with kidney failure. She knew how terrible and gross I was feeling. She thought she would cheer me up by washing my hair, which did, indeed, cheer me up. When she said this, she thought that there was one of those detachable shower heads in my bathroom, but then checked and saw that it was just a regular shower head. When she got me in there, in the chair, I realized this. So she stood in the shower, getting her work clothes and shoes all wet just to wash my hair and make me feel human. Granted the rough stuff comes with the work, but I feel that was above and beyond what was required, very selfless. She didn’t have to do that. I cried later. I feel humbled. I am still in awe of her kindness.