karenulijohn

I am writing this as I sit in the ICU watching Harvey sleep.  Dawn just left and is on her way home to be with Cole for a special awards ceremony in which both will participate.  It is just past 1:30 PM and all is well.  We arrived at the hospital this morning at about 9:00 AM after finding ourselves dressed and ready to go at 7:15 AM.  Dawn doesn’t eat in the morning, but unlike her, I have to eat almost the minute I arise.  So, we stopped at Starbuck’s and I had an Original Oatmeal, and she had a grande coffee.

Harvey was wide awake when we walked into his room, and about the same time, his nurse, Melissa, came in to let us know that Dr. Graves was just down the hall and would be coming in soon.  What a stroke of luck to get to see him and hear what he had to say about Harvey’s progress.  He, and that cute Dr. Becker, looked Harvey over and asked him how he was feeling.  Harvey countered with “How do you think I’m doing?”  Dr. Graves said “You are doing phenomenally well.”  They bantered back and forth while Dr. Graves inspected all of the tubes and wounds, suggested removing one of the lines, and ordered the suction turned off for the nasogastric tube.  He then turned to the nurse and said “Get him out of bed and on his feet today!”  Wow, really?  In the end, she got him to swing his legs out of the bed, pivot to a chair and sit there for about 35 minutes.  She had pity on him when he fell asleep in the chair and returned him to the bed.  That really tired the big guy out!  When he got back into bed, he looked up at the monitor and commented that his blood pressure made him look like he was in hibernation.  At that moment she was asking him to “roll over please.”  Even at the best of times, Harvey’s hearing is not the greatest, but he thought she said she was “looking for fleas.”  We all had a good laugh over that.

By the way, Nurse Melissa was born and raised in Lincoln, CA.  Her father owned a chicken farm (maybe turkey) and she attended Lincoln High School.  A true Lincoln High Zebra.  She knows Kris Wyatt and Elizabeth Jansen, and a few other long time Lincoln residents.  She is a lovely woman, and a wonderful, caring nurse.  Last night before she went off shift, she introduced us to Nurse Chelsea who would be looking after Harvey overnight.  She was very attentive, but I told her that he can be overly stoic sometimes and not say anything when he is cold or in pain.  She went straight to the bed, leaned in, looked Harvey in the eye and told him she wanted him to be her most whiny patient ever.  She rattled off a litany of reasons why he might call on her including if he was cold, awake, in pain, not in pain, lonesome, etc.  Another “Angel of Mercy.”