Private Room at AGH

I was very lucky that Dr. Aziz insisted that I have a private room when I got out of the ICU at AGH. It was very spacious and had a spectacular view. It had a love seat in it that pulled out into a bed. Mom slept on it as a love seat but Kendra really liked that it became a bed when we had our sister sleepover.

AGH was a nice hospital and I can't complain about any of the nurses during my stay in my private room (that they called the princess room because it was also the corner room, check out the views in the pictures!!) I also liked most of the doctors. I only have one doctor complaint during my whole stay. My sister had been spending the night and at 2 am a doctor came in (I'm used to them rounding at 5 am and even the nurse isn't sure who this doctor was at this time) which is bad enough. Then he flashed the overhead lights on. My sister told him that I was photosensitive could he please turn on lower lights. He responded that he couldn't so Kendra ended up having to get me a towel to put over my head to even be able to tolerate his presence. Who wakes someone up at 2 am and then refuses to turn down the lights when the patient is having trouble? This is the only doctor that ever refused to turn the lights down if they were bothering me even during office visits. He then proceeded to do the same neurological tests that would be done by the doctors I was used to dealing with at 5 am. He said that he just rounded early. I think he was a jerk and is lucky I didn't get his name or I would have filed a complaint. Even my 5 am docs didn't know who he was.

While I was in my private room, I was also allowed to start receiving gifts. Thank you too everyone that sent me things to liven up my room. I got a nice edible bouquet from my dad's work (unfortunately I only have hard copies of the pics so I can't post them), a balloon, & wonderful cards just to name a few things. I especially liked the card with a turtle with an ace bandage around its shell. I still smile when I see it and the pic is big enough that I could see it through the dizziness from across the room at the time. My dizziness was improving at this point and I was starting to read and watch TV again.

Before I could be discharged, they made me take an eye exam. Eye exams at AGH are some of the worst things I've ever done and at this point I have survived brain surgery and radiation and I still think the eye exams were horrible. During this test they made me sit at a machine and you had to stare into this light. Then it gave faint lights in your peripheral vision and you had to click something whenever they came on. Then you had to repeat it on the other eye. Sounds easy right? It made me sick, I'm still surprised that I didn't throw up. That was all there was to the eye test during my stay. When I went back for a follow-up with Dr. Aziz, they did another one of those tests and they insisted on touching both my eyeballs with this little machine (I still really can't believe I didn't vomit this time). I even remarked that the darn puff of air glaucoma test is better. The girl responded that it is outdated and they don't do that anymore. They should cause they certainly had a hard time trying to touch my eye even with the numbing drops.

I only had one really bad day in my private room. My headache was REALLY bad and mom was beside herself with worry. (The only thing comparable was the day of the nurse that was doing "well the state says" in my last post.) Dr. Aziz and another doctor came and checked on me. They determined that a nerve in the back of my skull was the culprit. He sent one of his associates in after that and they gave me a shot into that nerve. I will tell you, it was the best shot I ever got. Compared to the headache it didn't hurt (especially like you would think going into the back of the skull) and boy did it alleviate the pain. I was like a new person not long after that. I am still very grateful to him and I never want to thank anyone that stabs me with a needle.

Kendra and I had a nice time at our sister sleepover. It was nice staying up late chatting with my sister. I think we talked more then than we have in a long time. I had a lot of fun. We did have to go to sleep eventually though and I must admit I was tired the next day but I still loved it.


Well that is all for this post. Enjoy the pictures of the view from my room that follow!