Day 229, Year 9: Enjoying the Sunshine
Date: Saturday, June 7, 2014
Weather: Sunny with High Temp in the 70’s F
Location: At Home with Sue and John Reed, Cambridge, MA
Just as I arrived outside Mark’s hospital room this morning, Dr. Ferrone came out giving me orders, “Take him outside to enjoy the sunshine. And ask a nurse for another gown to cover his back side!” I took this to mean that Dr. Ferrone thinks Mark is doing just fine, so I asked no questions and got ready to go outside with him. It seemed easy. But when I went to the nurse’s station to ask for another gown, the woman at the desk asked why. I explained that he needed it to cover his back side when he went outside for a walk. One hospital gown just doesn’t quite cover everything. She looked wary and asked, “Did the doctor say he could go outside?” I said yes, but she declined the request and said she would have to check with his nurse. Mark’s day nurse is a young woman who is very attentive, but she goes by the book. She said the doctor didn’t mention this to her and that she would have to check. It took a bit, but eventually one of Dr. Ferrone’s residents came to the floor and gave written orders. We got the extra gown for modesty’s sake and headed outside. When we got on the elevator a young man asked earnestly, “Are you breaking out?” We got a laugh out of that one. The weather today was glorious. The sky was a cloudless deep blue, the temp was in the mid-70’s, and the sun was shining brightly. When we went out this morning, there were no other patients so we did feel a bit like we were breaking some rule. But when we went out again later in the day, there were a few other patients, so it felt more normal to be walking around with a man wearing a flying nun costume while pushing a mobile pole holding mega-equipment regulating the tubes going into him. Not your everyday scene, but it made for a great day. And we both really enjoyed the fresh air sunshine.
Have you ever heard of an incentive spirometer? This is little plastic gadget that you blow into post –surgery every hour or two to keep your lungs healthy. You blow into a tube that causes a little ball to rise and the goal is to keep the little ball at a certain level. At Mass General the nurses are insistent that you do this. Mark has found that it is much harder to do after open surgery than after laparoscopic surgery, but he has been doing his best. This device is disposable, so you can take it home with you when you are released. So the best thing about this is that we are now going to be the proud owners of three of these little plastic devices. We currently have two and Sam and Jonah have each claimed one. Now we will have one for Ollie. You wouldn’t believe how much fun little guys can have with these things. Sam and Jonah pretend that the spirometer is the regulator for their pretend dive gear . . . and they do a lot of pretend diving when they are aboard Windbird. Now Ollie will be able to ‘dive’ with his big brothers. This is just one of the perks of enduring surgery. What a granddad won’t sacrifice for his grandchildren!
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| 140607 Day 229 Cape Cod, USA–Mark at Mass General |
