Getting high at the hospital

I’m not a person who does well on medication. If there’s a side effect I feel it. When I take cold medicine I instantly have medicine head. You know the saying “high as a kite?” That’s me on cold medicine. Nyquil completely knocks me out. Within a half hour of downing a shot of Nyquil I’m out cold (no pun intended). And then I can’t get out of bed in the morning.

Apparently I get this affliction for pain medication from my grandmother. Grandma cannot hold her morphine.

My grandma had one of her hips replaced Monday morning. She’s been hanging out at the hospital ever since. Last night the morphine really got to her and she got a little loopy. She was convinced five of the nurses took her home with them last night. She said, “I was trying to figure out why they all lived in the same place.” Turns out they actually just took her to get a chest x-ray.

Last night my aunt left the hospital around 5:30pm for supper. She returned about 8pm. Between that time Grandma thought a whole day had passed. She told my Aunt Candy, “I slept all night last night.” Candy said, “No you didn’t. It’s only been three hours since I was last here.” But in Grandma’s defense, she was confused because Oprah was on. Oprah is always on at 4pm, but recently a station has started to run it again at 9pm. So I blame Oprah.

I spent most of the day today hanging out with Grandma and Candy at the hospital. The doctor was a little concerned that Grandma was so out of it. Plus her oxygen level and her blood pressure were a little low. So I wanted to hang around to see how she was doing and hopefully hear what the doctor had to say after her CT scan and blood work.

I think the hospital is trying to sabotage Grandma’s meals. Just after she got her lunch today they came up to get her for her CT scan. By the time she got back to her room her lunch was cold and she was no longer hungry. Then tonight, just as she got her dinner, the tornado sirens went off. (Okay, so that one wasn’t exactly the hospitals fault.) Grandma had to waddle out to the hallway where we hung out for about a half hour. Luckily she was able to bring her dinner with her. It was kind of a block party. She got to meet all her orthopedic patient neighbors.

But meal issues aside, Grandma was much better today. Much more coherent and not really in that much pain. They stopped giving her the morphine and are now just giving her Tylenol. It’s enough to make her feel comfortable without making her loopy. And her CT scan and blood work came back good. Her oxygen level is still a little low, but her blood pressure is coming back up. She may even get to go home tomorrow. Woo hoo!