Grab Your PICC

They’ve got a real nice rooftop pavilion here that looks out over the downtown and Lake Erie. It doesn’t make up for what’s going on underneath but it still can provide inspiration. Everyone grab hold of your Lucille knock-off and summon up your best BB King riffs for this one.

Hospital Blues
By Bob Masterson

Sitting on a rooftop
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Above Setback City
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Lake’s in the back drop
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Skyline’s looking pretty
[Bumbummundunndunt]
But I’m wishing the wind
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Would blow away the news
[Bumbummundunndunt]
And sign the discharge papers
From these hospital blues

Oh, the Doc says that I got it bad
And its just no use
No way he can release me from
These hospital blues

Came in for a checkup
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Three surgeries ago
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Now they say
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Got four more to go
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Not sure what it is
[Bumbummundunndunt]
But they’re gonna try
[Bumbummundunndunt]
To fix what’s got me
All eat up inside

Oh, the Doc says that I got it bad
And its just no use
I’m stuck in Setback City with
These hospital blues

You can’t cut out
[Bumbummundunndunt]
What you can’t find
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Got the kind of hurtin
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Only heals with time
[Bumbummundunndunt]
So poke and prod
[Bumbummundunndunt]
Replace every part
[Bumbummundunndunt]
But that weren’t no surgeon
Who cut out my heart

Ain’t no doc can fix it
And it's just no use
To suffer through
These hospital blues

Ain’t no doc can fix it
Oh, it's just no use
I’m stuck in Setback City with
These hospital blues

------------------

The PICC line is in place. I was kicked out of the room while they inserted it because I’m not sterile. Guess what, nothing in this hospital is or there wouldn’t be all those staff infections flying around. At just before 5:00 P.M., Renee got up and went for a short walk so things may be calming a bit. She also got her visit from Riley the Therapy Dog. I thought she was going to miss the visit due to the PICC line insert. That would have got Renee out of bed. She would have hunted that dog down. It was the highlight of her day.

The x-rays, two of them, are scheduled for 6. One is for picc placement confirmation and the second is to see if the NG tube is kinked. The suction is not working too well. They are also hanging a bag of IV nutrition sometime tonight after picc use approval. No more voodoo on Renee, they can use that line for almost all future needle work. We’ve reached a new standard in Invasive Maneuvers.

No word yet on what the CT scan revealed. No news is good news so no worries there. Renee is no longer the highest priority patient on the floor which is a welcome change from a few hours ago. There is also no timetable on possible exit, I’ve heard everything from Wednesday to a week. Better not to speculate until we have more info that the bowels are working correctly.

The nutritionist is in agreement that maybe solid foods were introduced too early in the recovery. You just never know with this stuff. I hear the dinner bell ringing so hold tight until tomorrow.