Hospital Rules from 2019

Six years ago this week, I wrote a small piece while sitting next to my sister in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit at Swedish Hospital on Cherry Hill in Seattle. I wrote it in my Notes App because I had no pen and paper. This turned out to be a good thing because it's easy for me to find now. A quick search of my phone takes me right there.

I posted it to Facebook at the time and many responded--many who have experienced something similar in the long hours at a hospital next to loved ones.

I decided to repost today on the blog to get it off my phone's app and because it feels like one right way to remember this week from six years ago.

I'm still breathing in and out about this.

Hospital Rules:

Shift change is at 7 am. If you get there before 6 am, you can talk to the night nurse before things get busy.

The Starbucks is hard to find at first because the place is a maze. But after a few days you will run that maze like a well-trained lab rat.

Bring lots to do and pick what soothes you. TV is out because she’ll need to sleep whenever they let her. And you both hate TV anyway. Puzzles and sketches work for a bit. Maybe crosswords. Books won’t work because you won’t be able to focus like that.

No matter what you bring to do, you will spend plenty of time just staring at the privacy curtain that’s decorated with dandelion puffs.

The fantastic nurses are busy. It never hurts to speak up when she needs something or the IV is beeping.

Know the names of her medicines and about how often she is getting them so you can ask for more as soon as possible.

Don’t move the chairs across the linoleum floor like a dummy. That will wake her.

Food takes a while. Order the moment they clear her to eat. Watch for the tray in the nursing area and don’t let them take away the leftovers. She might need them to settle her stomach in the hours before you can get the next meal.

Try not to start tripping. Thinking of your childhood together or her round baby sister cheeks will be your downfall. Thinking of your parents. Thinking of tomorrow and the next day. Don’t do that. Stay in the here and now. Breathe in. Breathe out. Listen to her do the same.