I feel like Frederica on Blues Clues/Elmo- the one who yells "It's my birthday." I had high hopes of collecting my free birthday sub at Jreks, but there is about a snowballs chance in Hell at this point. I don't exactly know when I started to really dislike my birthday, but I think it was somewhere in our infertility journey. Something about mother's day and my birthday so close together made for a fairly traumatic week. Add my forgetful husband into the mix and I think the day has become a self fulfilling prophecy so to speak. I have visions of the Extreme Couponing episode with the crazy twins (the pair that had the gazillion packs of diapers) raking in the free birthday loot. I want the birthday freebies, but instead I am very content to be awake and putting up enough fuss to keep nurses hopping in the same spot I took my first breath in. This year Randy gave me a wonderful gift and I think this is a new chapter in the "embrace your birthday" saga. He has been working towards the goal of weight loss surgery for about a year and 5/10 was the day of the big event. In true Coty fashion (at least the Cadyville Coty's) there were of course complications. Do you expect anything else? 12 hours ago he was awake and can recall in vivid detail being on and off of the ventilator. The goal of all of this was to extend his expiration date and with that decision we could have very well met a very different outcome yesterday/today. My father always said I would have made a fantastic Dictator. After today I agree. If you hear some commotion today it will just be heads rolling here at Adirondack Medical Center. So this morning I am dispensing advice and thanking God for the blessings we have. The greatest gift you could give me this year is to pay it forward and live today to the fullest.
- Do not take one second for granted- blink of an eye and the decks are totally stacked in the opposite direction.
- Thank your support staff. Administration (doctors) deserve lots of credit, but the Support Staff (Nurses, Respiratory Therapists, etc.) are the ones who are going to kill you quickly. We can train monkeys to fly aircraft, but LPN, RN, SLP, OT, PT, RD, RT, MD and DO after a person's name do not equate to competence or experience. I know my attitude sucks, but I have just witnessed the best patient care and the worst in the span of half a day.
- Advocate for someone! Try to make an hour better for someone who really needs it.
- Be a squeaky wheel- we're the only ones who get the grease!
Thank you for all of the prayers sent our way today. Please keep sending them. At this point I am itching for discharge as soon as possible. To anyone who knows my "mineral oil is a super mouth care option" story- this saga totally tops that one. I have tried to keep everyone in the loop but there are never enough waking hours to call everyone. Enjoy the sun. I am fully expecting my short term memory to max out at any moment- the post it note pile is growing rapidly.
To the love of my life - forever mine- that's all I need to know! (Cue the Cheesy Kenny Chesney song!). I will never, ever moan and groan about hating my birthday again!!!
