true to form, right about when the sedatives wore off, my brother started making demands.
unfortunately, it's kind of tricky to communicate when you've got a tube about as wide as a jumbo rigatoni and the length of your forearm crammed down your throat and taped to your cheek, pinching your lips into a crooked fishface.
all he could manage was a raspy, whisper-scream, sort of like the wheezy breath of a chain smoker. he emphasized the first syllable.
'MOOOOM!'
'yes, honey, what is it? don't try to talk, i'll try to guess. do you want something? are you in pain? are you comfortable?'
shakes his head. 'I WANT..'
'your dad? your sister? what? anything you want me to tell [his girlfriend] m?'
shaking. 'NO! I WANT TEHHHHH! TEHHHHH!' (snorts with frustration)
'huh? sweetheart, i can't understand what you want. i know you're thirsty, but i can't get you anything to drink because of the tube.
'NO! DID YOU BRING TEHHHH?! TEHHH, MOM!'
'what? i'm not understanding, honey.'
'TEHHHHHHHEEEE, MA, MY TEEEEHHHHEEEE!' (this time he sits up a little, for emphasis.)
'what?' (smirks a little) 'you want teddy?'
he relaxes and nods.
my mother had to turn away and hide her laughter. all that for a raggedy but much-loved bear whose embroidered nose is starting to unravel. teddy has been at my brother's side for 22 years, since his first surgery at 3 months. usually he's overlooked, sitting in some corner or under the a pile of t-shirts and boxers, but he is always present, no matter what zip code my brother is in.
all seemed right with the world when teddy came out of the bag.
he got rid of the tube shortly after and started telling off the staff. he was pretty rude, but in the end, proved he knows his body much better than anyone. if he wasn't this feisty, we'd be worried.
one day after the surgery, i came in, arms full of dr. pepper, iced tea and haagen dasz, to find him sitting up in a chair beside his bed. he's doing really well, and is determined to get out of here as soon as possible.
i'm on night duty, massaging his cramps and watching reruns of 'intervention' on A&E. (he has cable!)
You have no idea how much it means to me to hear that I’m not the only one that still has a strong attachment to a teddy bear. Mine was waiting in the crib when I came home from the hospital after I was born and we have been attached ever since. Should I be ashamed of that?
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear your brother is doing well :)
I don't think there's anything wrong with hanging on to something that means a lot to you and has been faithfully at your side for a long time. i've never had something like that, and sometimes i wish i did.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been told by a fair amount of people that I need to lose him, but I’ve decided that they are wrong. He stays with me. Last May I had just flown home from visiting my friends in New York and the airline lost my bag. Not in the usual, “it’ll be on the next flight and you can pick it up in the morning” kind of way, but in the “we have absolutely no idea where it is at all” kind of way. I had almost all of my clothes in there, but the only thing that really mattered to me was the bear. It was a horrible week, but they finally located it and returned all of my stuff. Lesson learned. Ted is now a carry on item. I have one of those baby carrier things where he’s strapped to my chest. Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.
ReplyDeleteyeah, this link-a-lot is crap. I'm writing my congressman, you can be sure of that.
ReplyDeletehey sweet cheeks! i'm so happy bro is doing good. i'm glad he is making demands w/ teddy bear in hand as he hits on the nurses all at once! Awesome! he is such a cutie.
ReplyDeleteand YOU! all the 13 hours, couldn't you put it to more use-- like hooking a hot young doctor or something???!!!! and no more vending machines, what if you get fat! :)
oh, and cable is good--- when my dad was in the hospital for apendix-- i'd hang out in his room and we would be fighting over the channels untill he was like: "hey hon... i think i need to rest, why don't you run along home..." !@#@!!
Sooooo happy to hear that everything went well. Will keep up the good vibes for full recovery! Angels are thinking of ya! ;)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear your bro is in good-spirits! His teddy-bear, that's great!!
ReplyDeleteI had this sheet (that's right a bed sheet, we was poor! haha) that I slept with til I was in college. Finally it got so worn and used that it disintegrated! I miss it...~~sniff sniff~~
AWWWW...that's so sweet! There's nothing wrong w/his trusty teddy being by his side. I'm so happy to hear that your bro is doing well and making demands that's def a good sign! Will continue praying & sending good vibes to your bro & family. Your a super sis!!
ReplyDeletethanks guys! your good vibes are what is probably getting him out of ICU today or tomorrow! (he's doing so well that the doctors are amazed.)
ReplyDeleteplease jon, can you figure out how to kill this plague?
The only thing I’ve been able to figure out thus far is to change your setting so that only registered users can post comments. This isn’t a problem for me because I don’t get unregistered/anonymous comments ever except for these stupid ads. I have the email notification of comments, and getting a bagillion of these things just isn’t cool, so I’m going to see if changing that setting works.
ReplyDeleteF&%* me, changing that setting will not work. I’ve just been reading the website responsible for this amazingly crappy new way of advertising, and they seem to have covered that angle by creating an account for blogs that require a registered user. Blogger is owned by Google, and I think this goes against everything that Google stands for. Mostly, it’s just damned annoying. I haven’t seen anyone else that’s been hit though, just you and myself… very odd.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear his recovery is going well!
ReplyDeleteAs for the comments thing, I'd just like to put it out there that I had nothing to do with it.
Funny that when weird stuff like this is happening, I see less vole activity in my yard. I'm not making any accusations, I'm just saying...
Looks like it only happens to the current (latest) blog, so maybe you need to put up a fake current blog. That would be a bit annoying, but it's a thought.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I should have to put up a “rodeo clown” of sorts just to avoid these ad comments. I appreciate the idea though. But seriously, who else is being affected by this? I have a pretty small blogosphere, and no one else seems to be trapped in this hell.
ReplyDeletecould it be because of somethign in our templates? because we have a similar setup but no one else i really read has anything like it.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I haven't visited here before! Beautiful, touching, brilliant! I work in a Children's Hospital and have really wanted to get a perspective on how the families experience the illnesses I deal with - our part seems so simple in comparison to the daily experience.
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing this.
I can’t logically determine that it has something to do with our lack of linking and our templates, however, those are the two main things we have in common that no one else has. I suppose it’s some sort of karmic justice for our lack of links. But what are we supposed to do? We are both in contention for procrastinator of the decade. This seems like an unfair punishment to me. I guess I’ll start linking people tonight, but I like things to be difficult, so I’m not going to actually name blogs what they are. For instance, you will be linked as “The Green Ninja.” Is that going to be a problem?
ReplyDeleteAnd also, having a pop up box for comments hasn’t helped one bit, I just think it’s more convenient when going back and forth between post and comments.
If the linking doesn’t work, all I request is that someone immediately shoots me in the face. Not looking forward to deleting all those ad comments.
thanks, 1glorious. i'm not sure what your role is, but i have to say that nurses are just about the only thing that make these things remotely bearable.
ReplyDeletelet's not get hasty, jon.
ReplyDeletemaybe this is a challenge from the procrastinator judging committee? shit, that means you've got one up on me; i've already gotten up off my lazy ass and deleted some of the offending spam (though i refuse to actually read any of them.)
green ninja is cool, but you're eventually going to have to bust out the 64 crayola box with the sharpener for alternative ideas. and it could get confusing when you've got red orange ninja and orange red ninja.
am i going to have to do some kind of training to qualify? i'm still kind of hesitant to go all out with the star. it's kind of sharp.
I wouldn’t be up for procrastinator of the decade if I were hasty. But I’ve already thrown up the links. So I guess that makes us even in the eyes of the committee. I’m not worried about running out of colors, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve and I think you overestimate my number of links I will be adding.
ReplyDeleteAnd don’t worry, nobody is good with the star at first, it’s more of a trial by error kind of thing. Training doesn’t hurt though. Try and find you local Ninja school and see if they have any classes available for you. Of course, finding the schools can sometimes prove to be quite a task in and of itself. Often times these schools are located in a hidden forest of some sort cloaked heavily in fog, or high up in the mountains… basically you want to look for a place that you’re sure they wouldn’t be and then go check there.
dude, i should totally check out the dungeon. they probably have all kinds of weapons in the basement. i've been meaning to try out some nunchucks.
ReplyDeletei'm so excited i get to be the green one.
Your brother and the teddy bear is classic. Love it.
ReplyDeleteI also have a teddy, and am completely unashamed to admit it. He used to be a Winnie the Pooh bean bag, but his eyes fell out, and subsequently, all the beans. He's still soft and fuzzy, though.
Sounds like he's recovering in record time. That's awesome, and I hope he keeps doing well.
Look, I’m not telling you how to live your life or anything, but I haven’t gotten any new adds yet today, and I’ve got links up… I’m just saying….
ReplyDeleteAnd dungeons are notorious for being filled with all kinds of sweet ninja gear. I’d definitely give it a thorough goings over.