Hospital Day 11 -- Happy Friday!

Nothing really exciting happened today.  In the world of hospital stays, that's good news. 

We got off to a roaring start when Anna needed blood drawn.  Despite the fact that she has a lead in her arm and one in her foot, apparently neither of these were suitable locations for the draw.  So, once again, they had to stick Anna.  Since Anna is not an easy mark, it was a bit tortured.

The day improved vastly from there, with Anna finding her full-volume voice (Mrs. Bounds, I know you will be glad to hear that!) and her directing ways.  She loves to instruct the nurses on the IV care (because she's already figured it out) and to let them know when something or another needs done. She likes to point at the dinner trays and tell them right where they can place hers.  She can't hear the dinner cart coming down the hall, but they always park it just outside our room, so Anna loves to see it arrive and is quick to insist that she be let out of bed to make her way to the table. 

This photo is for our friend, Linda S., who believes in photographing your food abroad.  This is a tray from a few days ago - kiwi, pasta, potatoes, and a vegetable quiche.

I have become rather adept at translating the Italian hospital menu and can now identify the choices offered: beef, pork, fish, chicken, turkey and every manner of cheese.  I can understand the vegetable choices, too: cooked or raw cabbage, carrots, spinach, fennel, mixed greens, potatoes mashed potatoes.  I have managed to order food each day that Anna will eat (keeping in mind that it's hospital food, which appears to be universal in the yuck factor).  However, yesterday, when I filled out Anna's food form, I somehow missed the word "tonno."  Anna ended up with pasta with tuna in tomato sauce for lunch. Only my office friends will really appreciate the irony of that.  I can't stand tuna!  I don't want it, and I don't want anyone having it around me.  Blech! 

One thing I find funny is that they always offer a "fresh fruit" option with lunch and dinner.  The dinner fruit is often two full kiwi fruits.  Try peeling and cutting up two full kiwis with a plastic knife!  After the first day, I decided it was not worth it.  Now I just send my two kiwis back when they appear.  Our roommates also send their kiwis back.  Now we just joke that they rotate the same four kiwi fruits every other day and save the expense of something people will really eat. 

Another thing I find interesting is the dispensing of the medication.  In the ICU, they would leave it sitting out in syringes for easy access.  It was labeled with masking tape.  Not quite what we are used to, but it seemed to work.  In fact, I felt that Anna was very well cared for in the ICU.  They had two doctors and three nurses who were there around the clock to cover 6 beds.  On the other side, they also had the same team for another 6 beds.

On the ward, where Anna is now, the nursing care is good.  Sometimes, communication can be a problem because I don't speak Italian.  Usually, though, I can understand enough of what they are saying to understand what they want or need to accomplish.  It is frustrating to not always be able to communicate about the medications - what she's getting and why.  I am trying hard to just remember that they know what they are doing.  Here, the IV medications are in glass bottles, not plastic bags like we are accustomed to in the U.S.  When they administer medications that are to be given orally (or other places), they hand them to the parents and let the parents take care of it.

The doctor did come by and let me know Anna's CT from yesterday looked good. Fabulous news!

If this weekend is like last weekend, there will be nothing happening Saturday or Sunday.  There is a chapel here in the hospital that celebrates Mass.  I would love to go to church - any language, any Christian faith - if they honor God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I want to be there this Sunday.  I hope I can attend.

I hope you all have a blessed weekend!  May next week bring discharge papers!

Amy