highlights from my hospital visit

Here are a few highlights from yesterday's hospital visit that I wasn't able to fit into my (too)long post yesterday:
--I had to go through several processes before I was shown to my room. The first nurse that weighed me and took my blood pressure was not very personable at all. In fact, she didn't say two words to me! Taking someone's blood pressure can be kind of intimate(she was holding my arm under hers) and it is quite uncomfortable when the person doing it doesn't smile or even say hello to you. Joe was blown away by her behavior!
--When they weighed me, I about fell off of the scale when they told me the number. I had lost two more pounds, putting my weight loss at a total of 15 pounds! Yay me! I can hardly believe it!
If things continue like this, I know I can lose the sixty pounds I am supposed to lose.
--The second nurse(she will be referred to as "girl" because she was the receptionist and she looked about nineteen years old). Anyway, when this girl showed me my room, she gave me my gown, told me to undress and put my things in the bag she provided and told me my nurse would be in soon. That was it. Thank you and goodbye.
--When my roomate was ushered into the room by this same girl, she was talking and laughing like they were best friends! I understand they were closer in age, but C'mon! What am I? Chopped liver? She even stood outside the curtain while my roomate changed and chatted. Give me a break! Isn't there something else she should have been doing? She certainly was in a hurry to get out of my room!
--Note to self: When undressing down to nothing to change into a hospital gown in a room that has a sliding glass door that faces the doctor's parking lot, make sure the vertical blinds are closed completely. Otherwise you will give those doctors a show they probably would have rather not seen. I'm just saying.
--When the nurse came in to take my blood and put in the I.V., there was just her. One nurse. When she put in the I.V. it hurt. A lot. So much that I had to suck in my breath and ball my other hand up in a fist with the sheets. I was surprised by how much it hurt. I have had countless I.V.'s done and none have hurt like this. The I.V. was placed in my right arm, as it had better veins(I'm told I have terrible veins). After she put the I.V. in my right arm, she brings me some papers to sign! What? My right arm hurts and is extremely painful to bend at all and you want me to sign some forms? Could this not have been done before you put the extremely painful I.V. line in? When I tell her I can't bend my right arm, she says "Oh sure yu can. It shouldn't hurt". "But it does" I tell her. So she lets me scribble my signature with my left hand, but seems bewildered that I am unable to bend my right. Whatever.
--When my roommate had to have her I.V. put in, there were several nurses present. Hell, there was a team of nurses! You should have heard them! "It's alright honey. Just take deep, slow breaths." When it appeared(sounded like) that wasn't working, the nurse said "Let me numb it with some Lydocain first. That should make it easier." Excuse me? Numb it? No one offerred this to me! What the!?
--Finally they are able to get the I.V. in. There is much cheering and congratulating. Everyone is saying to her "Oh, you handled that very well. Good job!" On my side of the curtain I haven't seen my nurse(or any other) for at least a half an hour an we are already an hour and a half past my scheduled procedure time. I'm laying in bed rolling my eyes thinking "Is this really happening?" Am I on some kind of T.V. show? This could be a sitcom!"
--After being ignored for forty-five minutes, my nurse comes back into my room and says she's really sorry, but they need more blood from me and of course it will have to be taken from the other arm, since the I.V. line is already in. Oh yay. Now both my arms will hurt.
--Then when the nurse came in to tell us that I would not be having the procedure done today, I had the emotional outburst that I explained yesterday. It was bad. I was so embarrassed. Usually I save those kinds of outbursts for the car ride on the way home, or until I get home and only my husband has to witness them. I was sobbing. Heaving sobs. To the point of hyperventilating. We're talking snot flying, wiping my nose on the sheets crying. You would have thought they just told me I was going to die or something. I have no idea where that came from. But once it started, there was no stopping it! I was trying so hard to stop that at one point the nurse told me to just let it out. She said it was better to get it out than bottle it up inside. Apparently that's what I had been doing for quite some time. And this was happening in front of not only this nurse, but my roomate and her mother too. I'm sure they must have thought I was a nut case. I was thinking it! (My husband knows I'm a nut case so I don't know what he was thinking)
--Finally the nurse left and I was able to get dressed. Still crying. But quietly. I looked in the mirror and Oh my Gosh! I looked like death warmed over! Twice! No makeup, hair pulled back into a scraggly ponytail. My eyes were so red I looked like a demon! I'm not kidding you. Even Joe couldn't believe how red they were! I'm serious! They looked like this. Pretty scary!
So when the nice mother next door told me it was worth the wait, I couldn't look at her! I stared at the floor the whole time she was talking. I was soooo embarrassed. I didn't want her to see my demon eyes!
-All's well that ends well. We went straight to my favorite Mexican restaurant from there. Weigh Watchers be damned! I hadn't eaten a thing all day and I was so hungry. Then we went to the movies. And the whole rest of the horrible day was forgotten.



*Note* Aside from the first two nurses I came into contact with, the rest of the nurses and staff were wonderful. Even the one who put my I.V. was very nice. I think the only reason it hurt was because of my "bad" veins. I don't want to give people the wrong impression. Aside from that one small misunderstanding(ha!) the rest of my visit was fine. I was made to feel very comfortable and I am not dreading going back there on Tuesday. I know that everything will go smoothly then.