Once again, hospital service sucks!  They moved Scott from the ICU late
yesterday to a regular room.  They removed one of his chest tubes this
morning and the catheter.  He's still hooked to a heart monitor which is
attached to something that looks like a small briefcase thing with lots of
buttons and lights on it.  Maybe like a 'Light Bright'.  (This is a toy
known to kids of the 1960's.)

I arrived to see him about 11am.  About 10 minutes after that he rang the
desk to say he needed some assistance to the bathroom.  No one showed up.
10 minutes later he rang again.  No one showed up.  Third time.  No one
showed up.  I finally went out to the nurses station and said, "Excuse me,
could someone help my brother to the bathroom?"  The nurse first busted some
chops - did you get the page from room ___?   Yes.  Then why hasn't anyone
been in there to help him?  They had no clue.  She bustled in and helped him
out of bed.  He's very weak and shaky.

We all know those hospital gowns are an embarrassment in and of themselves.
But they hadn't even tied the straps behind his neck!  My poor brother was
clutching the gown to cover his a.s and all the while it was falling off his
shoulders.  (My thinking is, hey, I'm not looking at your butt... don't
worry about it.)  She got him to the bathroom and shut the door.  Then said
she'd be right back.

So he finished in there and opened the door.  He was holding onto the
doorway of the bathroom.  He'd also asked if he could maybe put on some
underwear as long as he was up.  She'd said sure, no problem.  Except while
he managed to get his foot in one leg of his boxers the gown was falling
completely off!  He didn't quite know what to clutch, the doorjamb or the
gown.  I went over and stretched out the elastic on the other leg of the
boxer shorts so he could get his foot through and sort of propped him up
while he pulled them up.  Nothing worse than having flashed your sister, let
alone give her full-frontal nudity (which didn't happen).  But I could tell
he was embarrassed.

On a positive note, he's feeling much better.  Still weak, but better.
He'll probably be able to go home tomorrow.  But there was some confusion
about who is picking him up when he's released.  I thought it was me.  He
said no, our older brother is picking him up.  Then what do I need to be
there for?!  Oh, you don't have to be there to take me home, just come over
that evening.

I'll be staying there 2-3 days.  I'll have to run home to scoop the litter
box and pay some attention to Persia and Peaches.  I cleaned Persia's pet
fountain yesterday.

Oh, and he asked me if I could find him a back scratcher.  Do you have any
idea how many people at drugstores have no idea what a back scratcher is?
The answer around here is ZERO.  So I got him a long-handled bath brush.  He
can use it as a back scratcher.  Then once he gets to take a bath or shower
he'll probably need it to wash his back, although he has to be careful of
the stitches.

Scott's bedroom is on the 1st floor, thank Bast.  Me, I'll have to take my
cane because my room is on the 2nd floor and I don't do stairs as well as I
used to.

Still no word on whether or not he'll require chemo or radiation.  A
physical therapist came in to talk with him and told him how important it is
to follow a therapy regimine of walking around.  Don't just pop yourself in
a chair and forget about it or you'll regret it later.

Lots of co-workers are planning to bring him casseroles and things for the
freezer.  Little do they know he probably won't eat any of them.  He's
peckish, but that could be because the hospital insists on bringing meals
only a few hours apart.  Even when he was perfectly healthy he couldn't eat
breakfast at 8:30am and lunch at 11:30, then dinner at 4:30pm.  Hell,
neither could I!

Jill