It feels strange to realize that you are the cause of your own sleeplessness. I had a roommate in my hospital room, and my snoring woke him shortly after I was shown to my bed. He turned on his TV to muffle the noise, as drowning it out would have been a futile effort. The TV broke through my sleep, and woke me up. I’m certain that my roommate and I cycled in and out of dozing for most of the early morning. Later, when the sequence of likely events had clicked, I apologized to him. He was gracious enough to accept.<\/p>\n
It’s worth noting, I think, that hospital food is still terrible. Though, now that I have an inkling of what it’s like to juggle dietary restriction (both before medical incident and after), budget, hitting some sort of healthiness goal, and more budget, I can’t imagine throwing in mass production. Feeding patients, employees, and visitors in a hospital is putting food in a lot of mouths. So, while I grumble about my dining experience, my hat is off to those doing the job. You jump through hoops that I couldn’t.<\/p>\n
When Nikki<\/a> walked in to my room, my spirit soared. I had guessed she was on her way, because she’d stopped responding to text messages and emails. Having that knowledge didn’t dampen how good it felt, even a little bit. She did a magnificent job trying to hold back her fear and worry for me – she only teared up once or twice. Wren came with, since they were heading up to Frankenmuth<\/a> together. She gave me a sisterly punch in the arm and told me how stupid I’d been for not going in earlier. I grinned, told her “Thank you,” and stuck out my tongue. They both went on their day, despite their worry for me, and that made me happy. I know it’s not easy to put aside worry and enjoy the moment. I was glad not to ruin it for them.<\/p>\n My Dad’s a superhero.<\/a> I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that here, but he is. I don’t ask the man where he hides his cape. It’s a respect thing. It’s there, though. He made the trip up from the T-W-P to watch the kids so that Nikki and Wren could go on their trip while I was having my heart tested. And after I was cleared to go home (did I mention that my heart seems to be perfectly healthy?), he and Cian initiated Project Get-Nikki-Flowers-While-She’s-Out-Of-Town-So-She-Gets-A-Happy-Surprise-Upon-Her-Return-Home to great success. While I may have been the mastermind behind project GNFWSOOTSSGAHSUHRH, it couldn’t have been done without the superhero.<\/p>\n I would be a jerk if I didn’t mention Dad’s oft-underestimated partner in superheroing, Mom. She stayed home with Grandma so that Dad could come up and help out. I’m certain that she has a super power, and I think it revolves around putting up with Dad, Joe, and me. Ask Nikki, that’s no task for a normal human.<\/p>\n Gentle reader, I would be happy to end my tale here. Me, safely home with no heart problems. Nikki and Wren, bellies full of Truth Chicken<\/a>. Dad, Acelyn, and Cian, hearts full of play time. Alas, it was not to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It feels strange to realize that you are the cause of your own sleeplessness. I had a roommate in my hospital room, and my snoring woke him shortly after I was shown to my bed. He turned on his TV … Continue reading