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Show 76 "Yeah. Well, no." Tears are beginning to creep through the ducts, stinging my eyes, and I am biting my lip to prevent their spilling onto my face. "Why won't he listen to me?" "Because you're a patient and he's a doctor wanna-be," she confides, glancing over her shoulder towards the door to make sure Victor has not somehow stealthily re-entered my room. Victor is a nurse practitioner who has been assigned the task of monitoring, filling and regulating all the intrathecal pumps at this hospital. He should know the troubleshooting procedures. But because the technology is still quite new, mine is probably the only pump system so far that has returned malfunctioning. And very often malfunctioning at that. Lisa is a nurse who has been on this neuro "step-down" ICU for years. People in a "step-down" ICU are only one step from the ICU itself. But unlike the ICU, patients here are also generally awake. Thus Lisa is skilled at both ICU nursing and relating to people. She has taken an interest in my rare disease from the first time I was here, learning about it and teaching the intricacies of caring for it to the other nurses caring for me. She has also taken an interest in me. Though I would have never imagined I would have ever needed it, she is my greatest protector here. The door is opening and Lisa and I both rivet its opening with our eyes and hold our breath. But it is Hy and our children. Lisa and I both breathe out with relief I had forgotten it was Saturday. |