090 THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

As proof of how fallible memories can be, especially when they are produced in a delirious state caused by major illness or injury.  Compounding that is the drug induced fog brought on by pain control.  I’ve done 8 previous posts prior to this one and thought I had it right.  My daughter Tamara phoned to set me straight on a couple.  She told me that when she arrived with Karl, Lizeth and Stephen that Caitlin was there as well.  She also informed me that Stephen came inside and visited with me that day.  He stayed outside to guard the car on the way back when it was loaded down with all their stuff and my stuff.  I corrected and reposted that page.

I swore up and down and still believe to this day that Caitlin arrived at the hospital on Sunday July 9, but, I was wrong again.  Caitlin confirmed that she was there with Tamara, Stephen, Karl and Lizeth.  She stayed overnight at Glenda’s house and then went home on Thursday morning.  The next time I saw her was when she, Trevor and a friend drove up to the lake to pick up and take my boat home and put it in the garage.

When she went home on the Thursday morning, Renee and Toby went with her.  Renee checked out of the refugee center and got Toby out of the veterinarian’s kennel.  He was not doing well at all.  He did not handle the separation from me well and then the anxiety of being placed in a kennel caused him no end of stress.  He became very ill and for a time it looked like I would never see him again.  Getting home and being with Renee helped him to rally and he is now doing well, despite his age.  He’ll be 12 in March 2018.

While it seems hard to believe that I could have good memories of my stay in hospital, I do.  I have especially had fond memories of Nurse Tim and all my care team.  I also have good memories of some of the other patients I met, including the first fellow and especially so after hearing his back story.  Now, names have not stuck with me.  Even Tim, I did not remember his name until Caitlin reminded me.  I did think of him all this time as Vince Vaughn though.

Once I came off all the heavy-duty painkillers and the sepsis and the fever started to subside my memories grew much clearer as well as my logical processing of things.  I did start to take notes on my iPhone of some of the more noteworthy things, after I got to Ridge Meadows Hospital.  Which brings me back into the whole storyline.

As I mentioned my right foot swelled up and broke open and a surgeon came in and opened two vent holes to help it drain better.  Two hours later, my transfer order came through and I was on the way to Ridge Meadows hospital by ambulance.  I guess the hospital administrator finally got her way.  The first I heard about the transfer is when two paramedics showed up in my room with a stretcher.  Nobody told me or my nurses that I had been transferred to Ridge Meadows to be closer to home.

My biggest fear of the ambulance ride was motion sickness, but they gave me Gravol and I got through it.  I am very prone to motion sickness, and this will come into play later in the story as well.  It’s one of the major and probably the only reason I will never go on a cruise as I can’t see paying all that money to puke the whole time.  I’m so sensitive that when I took a tour of the USS Constellation, the second largest aircraft carrier in the world, I got queasy and it was anchored in Vancouver harbour on a calm day.

The ride was very painful though and every bump went through my back and shoulder.  The first transfer ambulance took me from Kamloops to Hope.  We got there in good time and then sat and waited in the parking lot of Hope Hospital.  It was near the river and while we waited for an hour, the paramedics opened the back doors, so I could see outside and get some fresh air.

Finally, the second ambulance arrived from Pitt Meadows to take me the rest of the way to Ridge Meadows hospital.  We arrived there, and I was wheeled in to a huge private room, which was cool.  Although, I was met there by my nurse for the night, a guy named Zoltan.  He did my vitals, took my chart and I didn’t see him again for almost 4 hours.  In fact, I saw nobody at all and was feeling rather lonely and almost abandoned.  It was then that I also discovered that there was no Wi-Fi in the hospital, so keeping up to date and staying in touch was going to be difficult.