The Flood

Today a class I tutored in had gone to the museum. The Titanic is now gone and Abraham Lincoln has moved in. I can not wait to go. One of my favorite people to study. But thinking about the Titanic made me think of the time J and I went. At the end of our visit I felt like I could be a docent, and Jaden to my chagrin said in a dead pan voice, "Mom, this is making me thirsty."

Anyway there was a part in the movie that reminded me of an incident... You know when the water is rising? (most of the movie) That dreadful sick feeling? I had a similiar experience at the U of U hospital once. Or at least I flash backed to the movie.

So here is my spine tingling story about an experience at the U of U hospital. I love my Dr.'s down there, they do an excellent job. But one particular hospital stay was for the eons of time.

My Dr. had admitted me into the shared bedroom with a woman that was on her way out. With a hoarse voice she talked with her husband about him working out while she was in there and it really upset her. But then the two of them made ammends and she was gone. I thought: I have the room to myself! (It is sometimes not comfortable suffering in the presence of strangers. And they can hear through the paper thin curtains pulled around your bed!)

Then a woman in her 90's wearing a bright pink shirt pulled up to the doorway in a wheelchair. Immediately she introduced herself to me and the curtains were pulled as we exchanged greetings and talked in between bouts of pain and general malaise.

I learned she'd been in there just a few days previously and had to come back. She spotted my cotton hospital issued pants and pointing an index finger said to her nurse: "I need a pair of those. " Her nurse was on it.

Soon my room mate and I were sporting the same outfits and she was telling me about her family. Things quieted down and we rested then I had a bright light to my left. I looked over and there Mary was sitting on the side of her bed dangling her skinny white legs over the edge with her pants rolled up to mid-thigh.

"Where's the flood?" I about asked but suppressing a laugh I listened as she went into a captivation story about contamination. Little did I know that it was a foreshadow.

That night was a little more hectic. After preping for a surgery and not able to sleep, I finally drifted off into a deep sleep.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind I heard: "It is clogged."

The nurse had to help my partner in and out of the RM so when I opened my eyes, I saw her, the nurse, and her walker getting her back into bed. I saw a shimmer of light off the pool of water in front of the door. It didn't register totally but I thought: Oh, great. Hope they get that taken care of. And closed my eyes to the ordeal.

The next time I woke up I had to use the RM. I swung my legs over the side and then recalled that brain recess holding the clog comment in my mind. Uh-oh.

I looked over the edge simultaneously stopping myself from hopping off. The whole floor was shimmering with the help of the light in the hall. The Titanic movie came to mind as I looked over my options in horror.

Quickly I glanced at my bag on the floor, It was near the water. I bolted up the side of the bed grabbing it and chucking it across the room to a chair. Then I hit the orange button with the outline of a nurse on it. A nurse breathlessly walked in and I told her about the incident. She seemedin shock, too but not for the same reason. Then I recalled the reason I woke up.

I cleared the water and landed in the hall, bolting down it to the restroom. On my way back I saw the commotion going on next to our room. I didn't find out till the next day that there had been two code blue's that night. Hence the flood going un-fixed till later.

Well, UofU made it up to Mary and I and we were safely tucked in a new room with in a couple hours. But I suddenly had my own contamination story. And the next time I am in I am rolling up those pant legs, cause you never know if there has been a flood.