So last night I found myself a bit hungrier than usual and ended up ordering two entrees. Sadly they refuse to let you do this so you have to order one, finish it, and then call down and order a second, this was the largest struggle of my day (not sure if I get to call this a "first world problem" considering I do have cholera). For my first meal I decided to go with something simple and got a simple turkey sandwich with lettuce, onions, cheddar cheese, and mayonnaise. Sadly they didn't have any miracle whip, which is without a doubt the best sandwich dressing to have ever blessed a man's sandwich. Again I went with the cheese plate, garden salad with a pudding and a bag of pretzels. The sandwich meat was a bit dry but otherwise good, and everything else I'd already had and would rate similarly to how it had been before.
The second meal I went with my go-to of the chicken caesar salad. Tonight the kitchen failed me, probably because I ordered it right before the kitchen closed but the salad they sent me had very little chicken, and what was there was dry and bordered on crunchy. Besides the less than desirable chicken the lettuce and dressing were still pretty good.
Today was the slowest day I have had since coming here. I woke up at around 9am this morning to have my vital signs checked followed by doctor rounds and then began watching Netflix. After an hour and a half of Bones I finally decided to order breakfast which might not have even been worth the effort. The "breakfast sandwich" here at Fletcher Allen (FA), does not even deserve the name. When I removed the top off of my little platter I stared at an english muffin with a large yellow egg like material sitting in a puddle of yellow fluid which I can only hope drained out of the thin slice of cheese resting on the lower slice of english muffin. It only tasted slightly better than it looked but I still managed to choke it down. Luckily I also ordered a piece of banana bread which is the only thing that saved the meal, especially since it was still hot. What a delight.
After breakfast I went back to Netflix and spent the vast majority of my day going back and forth between Netflix and napping, sometimes so fluidly that I'm not even sure which I was doing myself. Thankfully they have given me some options here for my lounging purposes here at FA and I bunkered down in a leather recliner that sits just next to my bed. This chair allowed me to lay completely flat with my computer on a movable table top in front of me. Add an awesome superhero pillow for some added comfort and the next thing I know it was nearly 2pm and time to order lunch. Today I went with the cheese tortellini with marinara sauce which I feel falls into the category of what most people consider hospital food to be like. It gets the job done, but definitely not anything to write home about. That's funny because I'm actually writing home about it right now.....although I refuse to attach a picture to help get the idea across, (okay I forgot to take one but I clearly had a VERY busy day and my thoughts were elsewhere).
Following this mediocre lunch I returned to my chair dwelling to get back to my busy life of Netflix and lounging. I know what you're thinking, "what a horrible existence it must be, to be stuck in that terribly uncomfortable place, in such horrible conditions." Well it has been an incredibly rough 5 days but I have a strong will to live and am confident I will persevere. I hope this strain is not showing through on my physical expressions as I try to maintain a sunny disposition.
A little later on I decided to venture down the hall and I found some information that I realized I forgot to tell you guys about, the dreaded yellow slip! Has anyone ever seen Muppet Treasure Island? What am I thinking? You have eyes and a soul don't you? Of course you have seen it! Well in Muppet Treasure Island one of he characters fears "The Black Spot" more than anything else in the movie. Well here on Baird 7 we fear the yellow slip. If one of these has been placed on the door to your room it means that you have reached stools of consistency 7 and from then on your fluid intake as well as output is monitored closely which seems to be quite the pain in the ass. If you fall too far behind then you have the pleasure of getting a needle shoved into your forearm and spending the rest of the day (only 1 day if your really lucky) with an IV bag and stand following you around the rest of the day. This also means you get your vitals checked every 4 hours as opposed to every 8. Luckily my door has remained yellow slip free which is much better than I was expecting considering I came into this stay with my super sensitive O type blood and no side effects from the vaccination, leaving me to believe that luck was not in my favor. Well it looks like someone should be buying me a lottery ticket because I won the diarrhea lottery, so I could probably get some money out of this hot streak.
Next up it was time for dinner as well as a rousing game of cranium which I had been looking forward to all day. Okay so I really was indifferent about this game of cranium but FA has been bringing us in some "cruise ship hosts" which have been doing their best to provide us with forms of entertainment but with little luck. Many of us have been, so far, much more able to entertain ourselves than the hospital staff had expected so while we did end up playing cranium no one really seemed dying to do so. I'm sure I don't need to tell you this but after a hard well fought game of cranium my team came out on top and with the prizes being decks of cards as well as a pair of slipper socks, I strutted back to my room with the swagger of a champion and the pride of victory.
All and all it was one of the more fun games of cranium I've had the chance to play in my life so I guess tonight's cruise director was successful. One interesting thing about tonight's game was that although the game seemed to be brand new (many of the internal parts were still wrapped in plastic) the game was still missing the sculpting clay required for some of the tasks involved. The curiousity about this strange occurance soon died off when someone pointed out that we were all currently carrying a pretty serious disease and someone probably didn't want us infecting this moist sculpting clay with the water born illness currently living in our colons. We decided to just play the game and pick a new card whenever anything that involved sculpting came up. This was definitely beneficial to me as my art skills are less than stellar. |
| To the victor go the spoils |
Try not to be jealous of my beautiful prizes, as everyone on the floor ended up getting a pair of the slipper socks and there were also more than enough of these old decks of cards (found in one of the staff's attics) to go around. Supposedly the prizes for the next game night will be better as they did not want to give away the good stuff on a night when people may be too sick to participate. Hopefully the higher stakes will raise the level of competition on the next game night adding to the excitement.
Well overall today was an incredibly relaxed day and although I did begin to feel a little stir crazy come the evening the act of simply getting out of my chair, walking around and interacting with my fellow plagued comrades was enough to settle the beast, at least for now. Tomorrow is the next major day in my stay as I will finally get to start the antibiotics and begin clearing the cholera bacteria from my gut so I can finally leave this place. That being said my stay here is only about half over so I imagine I will have more struggles in keeping myself entertained over the next week. It's weird to think that I haven't been outside since early Sunday afternoon, although I guess it's even weirder to think that I haven't flushed a toilet since Sunday night, although that is a subject I will touch on more in my next post tomorrow night.
Sorry this post came so late, I was really enjoying having a lack of anything to do today and I promise tomorrow's post will come sooner although don't expect anything until after dinner. Speaking of dinner I just realized I forgot to tell you about tonight's dinner. It was another turkey sandwich, this time on a bulky roll with a small chicken quesadilla side, a salad, a chocolate chip cookie, and a VANILLA pudding. Current pudding tally 11. Nothing has beaten the chocolate pudding yet so I think it will be my go to choice for the rest of my stay. Remember to take pictures of my food has become more difficult that I thought.
Okay its 230am now and I'm gonna go eat some honey nut cheerios.
I'm pooped.
I'm pooped.
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