My Horrible Weekend

Our major, major project at work was successful.  Very successful and
it's going to see our annual budget more than quadruple in the next 2 years and
our department staff with triple in that same timeframe.  By 2006, this
place will be completely different and for the first time in a long time I'm
looking forward to working here in the long term.  To celebrate our
success, my boss took us all out to dinner on Friday night for a few brews and
food.  That was great.  What wasn't great was that on my way home that
night I got a phone call that no one else was there.  My daughter, who had
been ill, had taken a turn for the worse and admitted to hospital while I was
out having dinner.  So, I turned around and swallowed a few breath mints to
curb any (hopefully any) beer on my breath before entering the hospital.  I
got there and she was already on IV.  she was very dehydrated and no one
was quite sure how sick she was or what she had) so she was kept in
isolation.  That meant her own room, complete with TV and VCR (and about a
hundred or so videos to choose from).  They rolled a cot in for me for the
night as I volunteered to be there at my daughter's side for the night.

Only that night turned into the whole weekend.

Friday night and Saturday were "okay" as far as staying in the
hospital the entire time goes.  Lots of people came to visit and my
daughter got a ton of presents (which in contrast to the IV and blood tests made
the hospital a fun place to be), so she was doing okay.  Her fever kept
spiking throughout Friday night and Saturday, so the decision was made to keep
her in for Mother's Day as well.  Fine.  I needed a change of clothes
and managed to head home for nearly an hour.  I fell asleep waiting for one
light and felt a little embarrassed trying to get going again.  I'm sure
people called the police to report a drunk driver (at 6 on a Saturday
night...).  One thing I realized when I got home on Saturday was that I was
still wearing my lanyard from work, with my keys and ID card attached. 
Finally, an explanation as to why all those people kept asking me for directions
in the hospital --our ID cards are very similar.

I brought some videos from home that I hadn't had a chance to watch yet. 
With my daughter falling asleep around 8, I had time to watch some videos, but thanks
to a very noisy clock that pinged and clicked for 5 minutes leading up to the
top of the hour and the hourly visit from the nurse to refill the IV filter
(which had an alarm on it that went off every hour and sounded exactly like my
alarm clock at home), I could time when to shut off the video (League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen is not kid appropriate after all) and just sit
back and read.  Sneaky me.  With the hourly clicks and pings from the
clock and the visits from the nurse (and one of them was really cute) I found
myself more vertical than horizontal throughout the weekend.

By Sunday night, I was exhausted and finally was told that there was a shower
available for parents to clean up.  I think the nurses finally figured out
what that smell in the room was:  3-day old "daddy odour." 
They were more than happy to volunteer the information at that point.

Monday was the worst day, though.  Sunday night visits finished off with
the last visitor walking out and seeing the TV on in the common area.  Just
wrapping up the Survivor All-Stars finale when she goes "Oh, isn't it great
that Amber won the million?  And she gave Shii-Ann the other car and the
marriage proposal from Rob?  Oh and the online vote.  That's such a
good idea!!"  "Uh," I replied, "I don't have satellite
here and I think these people were about 5 minutes away from finding that out
for themselves."  So much for watching it when I got home...  I
also joked that with my lack of sleep (and looking forward to making the most of
the quiet time tonight) that they'd most likely move someone into the room at
about 1 in the morning.

I was wrong.  It was midnight.

The new kid cried for 3 and a half hours before his mother finally shushed him
and cradled him enough to get him to sleep.  Yep, 3:30 before it was
finally "quiet" in the room.  About 3:45, my daughter woke up and
really had to go to the bathroom (even though it was too late as she'd gone in
her panties already).  So, the cleanup began after she'd finished in the
bathroom and I was finally done with all of that (new nightie, new bedding,
etc.) it was after 5... and then the other kid started up again.  So, by 7,
it was time for me to get ready for work and all I had to do was wait for my
wife to show, so I could take off.  I called her just before 7 and said
that I'd gotten next to no sleep and still had to go to the office (at least
until someone else showed) before I could come back.  She said she'd
hurry.  And didn't.  She came in at 7:50 and I had 10 minutes to get
to the office --not quite enough time...  As it was, my daughter was alone
in her room for all of 5 minutes and that was enough to get her really
upset.  which then got my wife upset as she also couldn't let my son crawl
around with another sick kid in the room now.  But I had to go to
work.  Initially, I was hoping to get dressed and shower before starting
work, but with her not showing up until 7:50, I had enough time to grab my keys
and go.  So, my first few hours at the office, I'm wearing sweatpants and a
t-shirt.  Finally, DQ shows up and had gotten the email I'd sent off. 
She covers and I head for the showers before leaving for the day.  I go
back to the hospital to find out they're moving my daughter into a room with 4
other kids and her bed's shoved into a corner --against the bathroom door. 
I'm told whenever anyone has to go to the bathroom, I'll have to move the bed
out of the way.  If we're here for another night, I'll be heading into 90+
hours' with no sleep --especially with so many kids in the room.  As it
turns out, the doctor's happier with her condition and says that if her fever
doesn't spike in the evening (as it kept doing), then she'd be cleared to go
home.  Which she finally was around 6.

I think what really bugged me, though, is when I said around 2pm that I'd like
to go home and sleep for a bit.  My wife told me that she wasn't feeling
well and that I had to stop thinking of myself and put others first for a
change.  WHAT THE HELL HAD I BEEN DOING SINCE FRIDAY NIGHT???  I took
my son and left, he fell asleep on the way home (fortunately I didn't this time)
and when we got home, I changed into comfy clothes and cradled him on my chest
and we slept for a few hours with only a few phone calls as interruptions
throughout the day.  Every phone caller asked the same thing: "Has her
mother been there the entire time??"  Ugh.

Again, I need a vacation.