The ICU

“We are going to take you upstairs to the ICU now.”

It was about 6:00 am on Sunday morning. I had been in stall numero uno in the emergency room for about six hours.

I’m thinking “ICU! That’s where really sick people go!”

At this point I’m still thinking that I’m not really that sick. Yeah, I now knew I had a heart attack but hey, I’m still joking around. I mean I didn’t expect that they were going to pat me on the head and send me home but I didn’t think I was a candidate for the Intensive Care Unit.

On the other hand, the ICU is the place to be if you are sick, sort of. The best part is that if you want anything outside of a cheeseburger and fries, you get it. Got a headache? They won’t just offer you an aspirin, they’ll offer you morphine. You need a nurse, push a button and they arrive in a flash.

Then again it isn’t the most comfortable place to be either. I mean just how comfortable can you get with an automatic blood pressure machine on one arm which squeezes your arm every fifteen minutes, three IV lines in your arms and an oxygen tube stuck in your nostrils. Surprisingly, I was able to sleep with all this going on though I imagine the morphine probably helped that somewhat.

The biggest impediment to sound sleep was the wave machine, at least that’s what I called it. The ICU bed had this anti bed sore mechanism that called to mind a waterbed with a built in wave machine.

“Can you turn off the wave machine?”

I seemed to be able to come to terms with all the other stuff that was going on but that was just too much.

One of the ICU angels kindly granted this request.

I spent most of the day Sunday watching football and dozing in and out of sleep. My team, the Baltimore Ravens got creamed by the Cleveland Browns. That coupled with the constant mild headache I was getting from the nitro drip didn’t exactly help my mood. Still, at least there was football to watch. I counted myself fortunate that this didn’t happen on weekday when my viewing choices would be more limited. Though I consider myself to be a reader I didn’t feel much like reading.

I didn’t know it at the time but in less than two days I’d be patched up and back home. Amazing.