Just how high can a hummingbird fly?
I have no idea, and never really wondered before, but I must say that I was surprised, very surprised, to see a hummingbird hover outside my 7th story window. This little guy (or two other guys who look just like him) has visited three times, drawn by some incredibly deep pink roses that I have sitting on the window ledge.
Who knew that something so tiny could so easily visit, or would even know to visit. How does he even see the roses? Two roses in one window of a massive concrete building full of such windows? It’s amazing.
I love to be amazed.
Secondly, and completely unrelated, except by location, is this question: why do hospitals insist on performing tests and rounds in the dead of night? I get that hospitals run on a 24-hour schedule, meaning they are staffed both day and night, as people are sick and in need of medical help regardless of the hour. But why, oh why, do they insist on keeping some tests to a night-time schedule?
Case in point, I have to have a “type and screen” blood test every three days. Every three days they come take blood, and then test for blood type and antibodies. Don’t get me started about how my blood type is not going to change, and how unlikely I find it that my antibodies will change either, so why is the test even necessary in the first place…..I’ve come to just accept that I will have this poke twice a week, every week. But what I can’t wrap my mind around is why they perform it at midnight. Midnight, just when you’re completely asleep and relaxed and dreaming that you are not living in one room of a massive concrete building full of the sick and needy, but instead lying on the beach surrounded by the tan and the fit.
And I’m not sure what is worse, the jab in the arm, or the fact that they turn on the damn lights in order to jab you. The fluorescent brightness is such an insult to your sleeping mind.
I have to admit that I am getting better at drifting right back to sleep, because lord knows, at 4 AM (and no, that is NOT an exaggeration) starts the first of the rounds. The second following at about 5:30 AM. Wtf?? It’s pitch black outside, people! How accurate do you think the answers to your medical questions are going to be when your patients are in the middle of their REM cycles?
And thirdly, when, please, please tell me when the Michael Jackson coverage is going to stop. I need some relief.
You poor thing. Being in the hospital is just nasty. Hang in there.
ReplyDelete(and this type and crossmatch stuff is relatively new. And awfully annoying).
Good one, Beth. You sound good under all the nonsense of the poking. (Why don't they just have a line in your freaking vein, I wonder?)
ReplyDeleteYou are so *out there*, in your concrete bunker. Maybe you can send those hummingbirds for help. Like, a beer or something?
Ellie
According to my wiki-research:
ReplyDeleteHummingbirds, called new world birds because they are native to North America, Central and South America, are considered to be symbols of peace, love and happiness. Moreover, ancient pagans held them sacred for their tireless energy and anxiety.
In Native American culture, a hummingbird symbolizes timeless joy and the Nectar of Life. It's a symbol for accomplishing that which seems impossible and will teach you how to find the miracle of joyful living from your own life circumstances.
They are really spectacular birds, and have a lot to teach a person about self discovery and healing.
Which sounds just about right.
And Ellie, Beth does have a hep lock on her vein, maybe that's reserved for putting stuff in rather than taking stuff out???
Jacquie
I'm glad the hummingbirds are visiting to help take your mind off the dang middle-of-the-night visits!
ReplyDeleteI have been lucky to have spent very little time in a hospital, but, yes, they woke me up at least once a night to poke me for blood or something. I did manage to lose any sense of modesty right away, which may or may not be a good thing. I could have walked the halls naked after being exposed in my flimsy gown so much.