Oh, My Head!

I was wheeled into my new room on the 7th floor. It was pretty large for a hospital room and at that time it was empty. It wasn't long however, before I received a room mate. For whatever reason, I didn't feel the need or want to be overly friendly at this point and it was probably a good choice. My first room mate was very whiney. I don't know any of his medical issues and what he had been through, but I do know that he was a bit difficult. It seemed like he drove the nurses crazy with all of his issues. I soon came to realize that he was also from the same town as I am (Selden). Probably another reason that I didn't want to get involved. I soon had other issues of my own to deal with.

The head ache started sometime on Friday and the pain increased rather quickly. I am not a fan of taking pain medication for anything so this was going to be a difficult thing. I have heard of and seen so many people fall into the trap of pain medication and not being able to step away from it and this was the last thing I needed. I knew from the nurses that I could do tylenol, percoset, oxy-codone or morphine. Since the pain was pretty bad, I opted for the percoset first. I don't remember how many doses I tried, but it was soon apparent that this wasn't cutting it and the pain was getting worse. I hen decided to go o the oxy-codone. By this time, Friday was shot and Saturday was beginning the same way. My hopes to be going home on Sunday were ruined when one of the doctors suggested I stay another day until I we could get the pain under control. Again, I don't remember how many doses I initially took, but the pain was not subsiding. My biggest fear was having to use morphine. This was NOT what I wanted at all. When I think of someone on morphine, I think of someone who is a the end of the road of cancer and they are being kept comfortable. I told Sue, I did not want morphine. I prayed hard for relief...even the slightest relief. Sue bought me one of those ice-packs that is molded to go over your face and eyes. I wore it for a while and it was very soothing. I began to feel some relief and the headache was starting to be managed. It seemed like I just needed to get several doses of the oxy-codone in me first so it could build up and begin to work. By Sunday, the head ache was more manageable and I was getting excited at the thought of going home on Monday.

My annoying room mate finally made the decision to go home on Saturday after several hours of annoying his doctors and nurses. My second room mate would be a very sweet older man. We would check on each other from time to time and it was a much nicer situation.

I had several nurses while on the floor, but the first was, Joan. She was another wonderful care-giver. We hit it off when we shared our music experiences. She had graduated from a neighboring school-district (Patchogue-Medford) where she was the first-chair flute player under the well-known band director there. Joan took great care of me...I was bummed when she had to leave for the night.