Friday - End of Day

Well, the day didn't go as well as we'd planned and Sandy didn't make it home today. She'd over-exerted herself yesterday and was in some pain last night. It had cleared up during the day but returned again in the late afternoon to the point where she said it was the worst she's experienced so far. As a result, we didn't have the boys visit.

By the end of the afternoon, the situation with Noisy Lady finally became unbearable. She had been bitching and complaining all day, was mean to her visitiors, and was refusing pain medication, even Tylenol, making the situation even worse.

It was a stressor for Sandy and when I saw the woman in the bed across from us cover her ears and cry, I talked to a nurse to see if she could encourage Noisy Lady to show a bit of consideration for her roomates. The nurse on duty for our room came and handled the situation with a skill that left me speechless. She talked to her softly and patiently, clamed her, and finally convinced her to eat and take pain medication. The woman's poor niece (grand-daughter?) continuted talking to her softly and calmly until she was finally sitting quietly in her chair.

During this time, Sandy's pain was starting to increase. I held her hands and rubbed her back until it was time for the nurse to administer the next round of medication.

Meanwhile, Super Nurse had arranged for Sandy to be moved to a new room. Yea! We moved her in. Her roomate was watching tv quietly when we arrived and politely took a phone call--that's it. As the medication was taking effect, I downloaded about a dozen MP3s of calm classical music from Amazon to the new computer. She eventually drifted off to sleep, with the music in an endless loop.

So after a night of ATV-Girl with the bad attitude and hip-hop ringtones, and a night of Noisy Lady suffering in anything but silence, it looks like she'll finally get a good night's sleep.

I finally arrived home at about 9:00 p.m. and ran into one of our neighbors. I briefed him on the situation and told us how impressed they were with the fact that MM had given so much time to help with the kids and that she was doing such a good job of it.

The boys had a good day playing over at JB's house this afternoon and went to the Eli Whitney museum with SW before MM and her husband took them to our house. For the last few months Friday night has been family Mario Kart night for the boys and, luckily for the them, PM made sure they didn't miss out.