ICU

As hard as it is, I had to leave Gill in ICU tonite, there is no place to sleep in the room, so I signed up for a bed in the hospital. It is on the 6th floor, gill is on the 7th. The room is actually used as a conference room, and there are about 8 beds that are hidden and fold out from various places in the walls or couches. The curtains are arranged so that each bed has some form of privacy. Gill seems to be doing ok. she is just now allowed to take a few ice chips, that she has been craving since the breathing tube came out earlier this afternoon. She has been vomiting (just liquid), but is doesn't seem to bother her much after wards. I'm sure she doesn't enjoy during.

I was waiting for the longest time when she was just wheeled in, because I wanted to be there for support when the breathing tube came out. Finally, the nurse said, you should get something to eat. I'll call you when we will pull the tube. So I go to the cafeteria, barely finish eating when I get a call... we are going to pull the tube.. so I rush upstairs and get to her room just as they pull it out. She was still pretty heavily sedated, which is what they wanted because we warned them that she gags easily.

I've been very happy so far, that she seems to be handling all this waaaay better than I expected. For someone that I've always seen as having a low tolerance for pain and discomfort, I just thought she would be having a really rough time. But she has had no problems expressing her needs and wants. She has really, really, really been a trooper. I know she wanted me to stick around tonite as long as possible, but the chair was really uncomfortable, and my body hasn't really recovered from last night. Since she was pretty much sleeping for the night, I asked her if I could go ahead and sleep, and she just nodded ok.

earlier, she seemed really confused on the time. She thought it was Friday, and kept asking some odd questions about how long she had been sleeping. it took me awhile to realize she was fooled by one of the resident that said "good morning" when she was opening her eyes from some drowsy state. And she was asking if she slept all night already. Didn't realize that she actually thought a day had passed.

now hunched over in bed, I think i gotta call it a night. I hear they turn the lights on in this room at 6:30am sharp as they want to get the room cleared and ready for meetings/conferences. I will probably get up at least that early and go to Gill's room anyway.

Until tomorrow...