MELINDA UPDATE

As some know from my post on Sunday, a member of my support group is in the hospital in Conway and three of us were making the trip there to visit with her on Monday. We were all quite concerned for Melinda is suffering from brain cancer and the reason for her hospitalization appeared to be grim. She was having mini strokes and severe pain. We approached her room with a lot of trepidation.

A nurse outside her door instructed us to put on disposable gowns and gloves. The gowns were bright yellow and the gloves a brilliant blue. We did a rather good impression of a trio of canaries with cold hands. Wish I had brought my camera for we were really quite strange looking. Can honestly say the get up flattered none of us. This precaution, we understood,was not to protect Melinda from our germs, but to protect us from possible MRSA which is the dreaded hospital super bug. Not a comfortable feeling to know why you are all dressed in yellow. I am not a germaphobe but could learn to be .

We were thrilled to find Melinda in wonderful spirits and feeling good. It seems there was a medication mix up which caused the pain and strokes. Medicine can save our lives but it can just as easily screw them up. With the medicine problem straightened out, she was bright, alert and full of good spirits. She is not home free but the change was almost miraculous. Too bad they hadn't found this out so she could have enjoyed her daughter's wedding pain free. Medical treatment is too often a crap shoot.

I mentioned Sunday that our group is laugh addicted and three of the worst offenders were in that room. Melinda however is a serious fourth on the laugh chart. What we didn't know was that the hospitals now days have noise level meters.

As long as the noise level stays in the green zone, all is well. Yellow is warning and red is "get out of here." We should probably should carry one of these with us when we eat out.

It seems we were dangerously close to sending the meter deep into the red zone and being expelled from the hospital. Now I totally understand the need for this. I have been a patient before and sometimes it seemed like a party was going on in the next room. Not very nice when you are feeling awful.

Visitors, often out of nervous relief and the compulsion to entertain the sick, laugh and talk too loudly. This need to make a patient laugh I feel intensifies in direct proportion to how many abdominal stitches they have. The more stitches, the greater the need to a cause a deep belly laugh. Oh, have I been there.

Luckily Melinda had no stitches but we were guilty of the need to entertain anyway. It would have been a new low for us to have been kicked out of a hospital in violation of a noise ordinance. Fortunately, we were able to keep our enthusiasm down and the meter in the "green" with occasional trips into the "yellow zone." It was a struggle though.

Good news is that if the tests that day went well, she could come home on Tuesday. Correction, not good news, but wonderful news. I want to thank all of you who offered prayers and good wishes. You are the best.