5 October 2021
We must be getting close to release because today they removed the drips. That would be the saline solution and the antibiotic. Joyce took her two laps around the ward today with just the Wound VAC on the pole.
She has been in pain since Monday's dressing change. It bothers her most when she is lying in bed and she's uncomfortable sitting but she does fine walking.
What really made her cry, though, was a nurse who spilled water on her new book last night. She'd just begun reading it and had put it down on the only place in the room to put a book down.
Fortunately, I'd removed the dust jacket earlier. And also fortunately the nurse wiped up the spill quickly. So only a bit of the blue paper front cover board was discolored. A souvenir of what's she's gone through, I told her.
She doesn't have her reading glasses with her, she said, so she had to hold the book at just the right distance to see the words.
I thought I'd pop down to the gift shop to get her a pair. The plan was to buy the highest magnification on the shelf because I didn't know and she didn't remember what she uses.
But apparently the gift shop closed with the pandemic. The room has been repurposed.
Well, I thought, I can run up the hill to Target and get her a pair there. It's a large two-story Target at the old Sears location, a huge store.
But they didn't have reading glasses. Not a pair. Sunglasses and blue light glasses but no reading glasses.
Well, I thought, I can go back down the hill to Divisadero where there's a Walgreens. They have to have them. Where else would a person find Foster Grants? And I need the exercise, anyway.
But they didn't even have sunglasses.
So I trudged back up the hill to the hospital, checked in again and reported back to Joyce. If she's still in there tomorrow night, I'll bring her a pair from home. They're +2.75, I just found out.
When I got home I think I detected new neighbors across the street for the first time. A big old RV was parked in front of the building and the outside lights were turned off for the first time since they'd been installed. I saw just one guy walking around on the second floor balcony, locking the RV remotely and checking his phone.
So if she gets home tomorrow or Thursday she'll have something to entertain her besides a book.