Friday, September 3, 2010

The Nurse with Squeaky Shoes On

When you spend this much time in a hospital you notice some pretty strange and alarming things. For example why at this hospital is the smoking section right below the cancer wing?!? I kid you not, you walk through people who have obvious scares from their bout with cancer only to leave the front door and be hit with pungent smell of cigarette smoke. Even more amazing was the conversation I over heard while following a couple out of this wing. By her hair you could tell cancer was an ongoing fight and she was telling the man, "wow, after talking with him today I feel there is a chance at a normal life". Just then we crossed the threshold to the outdoors and as she finished her statement she whipped out a cig and lit up. Are we really this stupid as a human race?

But I digress back to the title of this blog; last night we had two nurses. One dressed in the usual blues and then a second who was dressed in the sportiest nursing outfit I have ever seen. No lie, the getup had racing stripes. Additionally, nurse 2 also wore a jacket complete with fur trim. This was all acceptable because lets face it, it's the middle of night and Mon and I are trying to get any sleep we possibly can. But then came the realization that her shoes were an early warning system for the entire Pacific Rim. Have you ever had a pair of shoes that got soda on the bottom and then walked around to hear the sticky/squeaking sound with every step? Well she either ordered these bad boys directly from Coke or soaks them nightly. As the night progressed you could hear her coming from five minutes away. When she entered the room it sounds like a chorus of Coke stained dancers had entered the room. This would not have been such an issue except for the fact that they insist on coming in every 1.5 hrs to check on mom and baby preventing any normal type of sleep a person in our state craves. For those in the nursing industry please do not repeat this ladies insensitive fashion sense. If you have a colleague who wears a shoe with an early warning system please pass along this blog link. There is enough going on without having to hear your every move. So to the nurse with the squeaky shoes last night, thank you for forever changing my sleep patterns with your footsteps. I had no idea I could exist on such little sleep until you decided to show up. My only remaining question (coming from a guy who can't stand the sound of change in his own pocket) is how in the hell can you not notice this? I'd cut off my own feet is my shoes made this sound!


OK enough with the fashion critic of the over night staff. Mon is up and around feeling much stronger and better this afternoon. Charlie continues to frequent the buffet line like Baptists at a Golden Coral for Sunday lunch. All his tests and counts are coming back great so fingers crossed we will be able to head home tomorrow. Thanks again for all the messages, emails, and phones call; your support is incredible! Thank you!

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