Pneumonia Part III - November 14th

Okay so I was at the exciting part of the story where John got to leave ICU. We were transferred by a character named Ron. He and John got along swimmingly. Our new room was on the ninth floor of the new building, with a rockin' view. After John transferred into his new bed, his newest nurse, who I will call nurse X, came in to take vitals, reset the IV, all of the things that a nurse does best. My only problem was that Nurse X forgot to turn on John's oxygen. I pointed out that he wasn't getting any, that his pulseox was dropping you know 84 isn't the number that we were looking for. She assured my that the hose was connected, everything was fine. Now we all know that I'm not stupid and I don't like to be pandered to. I pointed out that although the hose was connected the oxygen wasn't going into his canula. I couldn't hear the oxygen! You definitely miss that sound when you've been hearing if for five days. After Nurse X spent the four or five minutes checking the IV hoses, his pulse, his temperature, remarking that his oxygen line would need extended for more mobility, which helped me mention John's low pulseox levels for the third time. Our nurse's LPN assistant came in listening to the concern and frustration in my voice took a look at the situation. Realizing that there was a cap in between the oxygen valve on the wall and the hose going into John's nose and fixed it. Viola once the cap was removed and the hose reconnected John's pulseox levels went back up to 97%. Thank the lord that the LPN came in at that moment. I decided that my level of nasty wasn't nasty enough and I'd have to watch Nurse X closely, very closely. Luckily John was clueless, pain meds before "the big move" made him a little punch drunk and unobservant.
Nurse X and I were not on friendly terms. I don't know if she was smart enought to realize it yet...she was a little young. Ha! I get to say she was a little young, when did that happen. Our next big adventure on the ninth floor was a bathroom break. Nurse X had forgotten to extend John's air line. She came in and took him off oxygen and went to check on her other patient. John took his "break" and got back into bed. She came back in later to check his vitals. I reminded her that John's oxygen wasn't plugged in. She looked at me, "Yes. You can tell it's plugged in by the bubbles in the water bottle. The oxygen is definitely on." I was SO DONE! I felt like I was arguing with Kate. I got up walked around the bed, Nurse X was busy checking his pulseox to make sure it was on his finger right, picked up the end of the oxygen hose, that was hanging over his IV stand you know the one that should have been connected to the wall unit. I said in my absolutely most done with your crap kid voice, "You mean THIS HOSE? This IS THE HOSE that should be attached to the wall ISN'T IT? Could you PLEASE show me how to attach everything so that I won't have to worry about you forgettting to attach things again." She didn't say a word, no oops, not a sorry, not even a let me check that for you. I attached it to the wall she left and I saw a lot of the the LPN for the rest of the night. What I want to know is what happens to the patients whose families can't stay with them on the nights that they are still out of it? I'm just glad I was there.
Friday uneventful, xrays, bloodwork, I went home for a while. The girls finally got to see John because he was in a regular room. Nurse X was back. John was quite capable of caring for himself so I went home to sleep. I did stop by to have a little talk with his nurse before I left. The conversation was...."Oh,"in a not her again tone, "Hi Mrs. Rapp." Everyone who got to know us in the hospital called me Susan. The Mrs. Rapp said with dread in her tone almost made me laugh. I decided to go with her talk down to them approach and said, "I know WE," you've got to love the royal we, "will make sure we, don't repeat any of last nights problems? You know like the few misunderstandings with his oxygen." I got a "Yes mam." out of that deal, I'm a mam now! Then went back to let John know I was a little bitchy with his nurse so she should be extra nice tonight. John found it hilarious that I had to resort to nastiness to get my point across, usually that's his job. That was all for Friday but don't worry I have another whole weeks worth of fun to write about.