Things are a Changin ' in SCOTLAND Chapter 9

Thursday was a day of a lot of pain for me. I was convinced under the huge dressing covering my leg it was going to be black flesh, it hurt too badly for it not to be. My pain level was so bad I needed my morphine pill every hour. It would wear off in 45 minutes.

I was anxious for them to take the dressing off my leg so I could see it. I was not able to lift my leg at all at this point. The swelling of my right leg was huge!

I had finally started to eat my food, my stand off had ended to a degree over solid food. I did have to ask Cherie and Isla what some of the food was. I asked what Cold Gammon was and they told me it was like thick bacon (Canadian bacon.). I did not want that it sounded to fishy to me.

The food was good enough when you got it. For some reason there were several meals that Cherie did not get, and then when she would tell them they would offer her something she did not like. Isla did not eat well at all because she has severe soy allergies. I did not realize how much food really contains soy that you don’t realize.

I was worried about the 93 year old occupying the bed next to me. She had stopped eating the day before. She was waiting on surgery to fix her broken hip. She had stopped eating or drinking anything. I noticed she had red stripes had started

running down her cheeks. I told her family my concerns and they thanked me.

We had these TV/Internet/telephones that were a piece of junk! The keyboard was hard to work and the keys were little and stiff. The TV had 20 versions of the same game show as far as I could tell. I only turned it on twice, and they charged a fortune to use it.

Today was the start of the weekend shift and Allison was our day floor nurse. She was about 50 years old and a real character. She reminded me of a young Lauren Bacall. She took good care of our needs and spent time talking to us. She was always there in good time if you needed her. All the nurses called us by our first names in the hospital and we called them by theirs. It gave it a pleasant feeling to be on a first name basis.

Shift Change was at 7:15 PM and that was when I was about to meet the only person I had encountered that scared me.

To be continued………