The Romaezis

Day 28: Privacy Please

I have somewhat gotten used to the fact that you have ZERO privacy in here.  I have a private room and that helps a bit but I still have several “visits” throughout the day…doctors, nurses, food service managers, food service bringing my food and picking up the tray, you name it.  Now we can add nursing students to that list.  Yesterday was the first day of the beginning of the semester and I met two new nursing students.  Both of whom were very nice.  Mid-afternoon one of the nursing students was sent in to do my vitals.  Only trouble is, I had JUST run into the bathroom.  Now, mind you, I wouldn’t subject you to bathroom humor at my own expense if it weren’t clean and funny.  With that being said I will proceed with my story.  I was in the bathroom when I heard the nursing student come into our room and say to Kayvan that she will just come back.  60 seconds later I heard her come through the door again.  Um, ya…give me at least 3 minutes please?  That is how much time the teachers in school would give you if you needed a bathroom break during class and even that was a ridiculously short amount of time.  During the nursing student’s second visit I heard her say to Kayvan that she will just wait.  Then I hear her say, “Let me make sure she is okay.”  So she knocks on the door and says, “Are you okay?” I respond yes and flush the toilet as I hear the door start to open.  “I think to myself SERIOUSLY?!  You need to come in?!  I SAID I was okay.  Ugh.”  I mean, what did she think?  that I decided to play fugitive and leave my room!?  Or maybe like those commercials you used to see on TV I had fallen and couldn’t get up.  Who knows what scenes were playing in her head.  I’m pregnant, not a rehab patient who just learned to walk again.  I can handle the bathroom on my own, thanks.  It seems the sound of the toilet flushing made her believe that I was indeed okay and thankfully she did not come all the way into the bathroom.  But that didn’t stop me from getting a tad bit snappy with the poor girl.  Giving her a dirty look and saying to her “I sure hope that was urgent because you don’t get much privacy in here.”  Usually I feel bad after being the slightest bit mean to people.  But that was not mean.  That was me teaching her what not to do.  I like to think any other person would have reacted the same way or perhaps a bit more harshly depending on their level of pregnancy hormones that day.  I let her take my vitals even though I just wanted to say, “Nope my nurse will need to do that.”  As so on as she closed the door to my room behind her I looked over at Kayvan and snapped “What the hell was that?”  At least we got a good chuckle.

I stuck to my guns and started reading again yesterday.  I did crochet quite a bit too but I’ve now started to make a bit of progress on “Water for Elephants”  So far so good.  They are making it into a movie so if it comes out in the theaters after I get out of here, maybe I can break away from the anticipated screaming infant and go see it.  Fat chance, right?  It was pretty slow yesterday aside from the bathroom incident.  Kayvan and I managed to watch a few more episodes of “The Wire” later in the day and I discovered some storage unit auction TV show on A&E that makes for good do-nothing television.  There doesn’t seem to be any MTV in here or I would be watching repeats of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, screaming at the television all the while.  My co-worker, Kim came up for a bit after an incredibly long day at work.  I told her the bathroom story and ranted about the food service lady coming in to ask me how things are every other day.  I will save that rant to share with you later.

The non-stress test went well this morning.  The little bugger had hiccups when the nurse first put him on the monitor.  He must have hiccuped himself to sleep because he wasn’t giving us much variability.  After 20 minutes the nurse brought me a popsicle…yes at 10:20 a.m. to get him moving and that worked well enough.  All in all we’re doing well.  Can you believe that today is officially 4 WEEKS since I first landed my butt in here?  Sunday will mark one whole month.  Where has it all gone?  They tell you that you no longer have a life after you have a baby…no one told me that this would happen BEFORE I have a baby.