No rest for the weary

It’s hard trying to get rest in a hospital!  

Arielle is more and more exhausted (not to mention wicked cranky) as the days go by.  She seems unable to get any real sleep at all!  It could have to do with the chemo, but also the fact that hospitals are not good places for peace and quiet.

This week has been particularly bad.

We have had the normal 4 hourly vitals check, which is pretty annoying, because just as she’s falling off to sleep, a perky young night nurse, who’s perhaps been drinking way too much coffee, wakes her up to take her temperature and check her blood pressure.  Hello Nurse!  

And then there’s being in a room with 5 other women… well that’s fun, right?  Yes and they are sharing a bathroom (located right there in the ward!) Everyone gets up at different times during the night to use the toilet. Lights go on, toilets get flushed, hands get washed… it’s a whole palava!       

Round 3 has also presented an “interesting” array of roommates!  (I guess she was really lucky with Rounds 1 and 2 as  they were all young, similar types of cancer and they got on really well.)  

The young lady in the bed right next to Arielle keeps her light on all night!  Yes, even though she’s fast asleep, there is a beacon of light emanating from the other side of the blue curtain! She also talks REALLY loudly when she is on the phone (but is barley audible when she speaks to the nurses?)  No seriously… I’m a LOUD talker and she is much louder than me!!!!  To add fuel to the fire, she has an annoying text message alert that sounds like someone whistling (What is up with that freaking sound byte?) that goes off about every 20-30 seconds…. and Arielle is more than a bit concerned that she hasn’t showered or washed since she was admitted on Tuesday. Hmmm? Perhaps a bit alarming. 

An older woman was admitted yesterday… bless her, she must have throat cancer. She is constantly coughing/choking up “stuff,” and has to use an aspirator every 30 minutes or so. The sound is… well, it’s horrific! I totally understand that she cannot help it and I do feel bad for her when she goes into these coughing fits, because it sounds like she’s going to choke to death… but for her privacy and the comfort of the 5 other woman, they might have put her in a private room. (of which there are many which are not occupied!) …but I guess the NHS rules dictate who, goes where.  

The woman in the corner diagonal to Arielle keeps her “blue curtain of privacy” closed almost 24/7. She is quiet enough, but when she’s watching TV/movies on her iPad, it sounds like she watching PORN! Really! Good on her, I guess… I don’t know where she gets the energy? 

And then there’s Milly (not her real name).  She is friendly and really quiet. Wouldn’t say “boo to a goose.” … she hasn’t had any visitors in 3 days and that makes sad.

However, I digress…  The point is, there’s not a lot of sleeping going on in this place!  

Thankfully, in less than 24 hours (and only one more chemo treatment) Arielle will get on that Dover bound train and she’ll get to go home! To her bed, her things, her cat… and she will sleep.  Well, at least until Monday morning, when she gets back on a train and goes back to London for her (hopefully) next to last chemo treatment.