Adventures in Hospital Land Part I

For the 'lighter side' of our recent sojourn at the V. A. Hospital in DC , just wanted to share the story of when Tony first woke up after surgery and was still on the ventilator (they don't immediately remove people from the ventilator post-surgery)

I had been told that it was very likely he wouldn't remember my first few brief visits back to the Surgical ICU (SICU).....the first visit, he wasn't awake.

The Second visit, he grabbed my hand and started trying to spell onto my palm....however, he just kept drawing 2 lines, so I really couldn't figure out what word he was trying to spell....I said 'honey, I'm just not that good at charades".....the look he gave me,lol....

The next visit, he first spelled "W H A T " and when I said "what?" he nodded, so then I said "well.....what 'what'?"again, the 'look',lol....

then he kept holding up 4 fingers, and then spelling "H E A .." and before he could finish I kept saying "no, honey, they didn't have to do a quadruple bypass , they only had to do a triple bypass" (see, I was so sure he was trying to spell "H E A R T" and asking if they had had to bypass all 4 arteries to the heart....I also finish other people's sentences,lol:)

Finally, 45 minutes later.....I realize he's trying to spell "4 Head"......I said "oh would you like me to wipe off your forehead?" the look on his face,lol, said "my gosh, she finally gets it!"

The next morning, when they had taken the vent tube out, I asked him "how much do you remember?" He looked at me and said "One, you're not that good at charades, and Two.....don't try and finish people's words for them when they are spelling them out!"

darn it...what happened to "he'll be too groggy to remember much" ? :)