First I do want to thank everyone who has left messages and sent email. Please know that it really helps our spirits that so many folks are sending quick messages, and that I am relaying everything I can keep in my pea brain to Kriss. I'm trying to get mail downloaded for her to look at tomorrow. It is not looking likely that she will be released now until friday or possibly saturday.
Second, I'm going to vent a moment on the subject of public fragrance. Since Kriss has trouble with fragrances, cleaning solvents, and a handful of other things that cause her asthma to flair, a sign was posted on the door to her room. While it has cut down on people entering the room while perfumed to the gills, Kriss has used her inhaler more in the last 3 days than in the prior last 2 months. Please remember this is an intensive care unit she is in, not a regular hospital room. Access is more restricted, and there are fewer patients for each of the nurses. One of the main reasons she has not been moved to the main floor is because of the inability for the staff to control what visitors wear in terms of fragrance/deoderant/aftershave, etc. While Kriss was lucky last time to have a great roommate, that might not be the case this time. So while this is supposed to helping, we are finding that the staff are some of the worst offenders.
Most hospitals enforce employees not using scented products, and most certainly do not alow anything likely to cause respitory distress to patients. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a policy about this at North Shore University Hospital. I cannot begin to express how frustrating this is for Kriss, and for me. I'm not that sensitive to a lot of products used for personal hygiene, or personal expression. I was taught that perfume was for your lover, husband, wife, and intimates, not for the person at the end of the hall. But since everything must now have an odor, a "fresh scent" or whatever the pinhead marketing department thinks up next, we all must suffer the olfactory assault. I'm surprised more people don't have problems with all the unneeded chemicals added into everyday things. Things that show up a lot in hospitals, where people who are ill, recovering and otherwise don't need extra aggravation. I'd much rather smell someone's real body odor than all the other crap. It doesn't make my mouth taste like metal, and it doesn't make Kriss' air passages swell shut.
End of sermon about inappropriate fragrance.
Kriss had first visitors today. Our friends Lea and Spencer came by for the late afternoon visiting time, which was very exciting!
Lengthy meeting this morning on pain management and dosages.
Dr Bolognese was by for a while, and he and Denise, the PA, discussed removal of the surgical staples on Monday.
Kriss walked all the way down the hall using crutches, but we did not try another walk in the evening because the perfume level in the hall was too strong to get her safely out of the room.
Kriss resumed knitting for a bit tonight, and her appetite is improving, even thought she's still having a lot of nausea.
There's a lot more I could report, but that's all I can muster for now.
Eliot
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