It is early Wednesday morning and we have officially been in the hospital for one week now. Although we have been at the hospital continously we haven't actually stayed the entire night with Matthew because he had one on one nursing while in the CICU (cardiac intensive care unit). We were told that he was doing well and sleeping while we caught a few hours of z's. I now have my doubts and I have an incredible insight into why he is behaving the way that he is: PURE EXHAUSTION!

He is now on the third floor and because the nursing ratio is like 1:4 we are staying with him 24/7. There is a bed in the room and if he goes to sleep, there is no reason why we can't go to sleep. WRONG! Nana left at around 9:00 pm. We both actually got some sleep from 9 to 11 (2hrs worth). Then they came in to do vitals and give him his meds. He threw up. We changed the sheets, the blankets, washed his hair, and put on new pajamas. That took an hour. At midnight the foley had to come out and that whole ordeal took another hour. It was now 2 am. They then started his 3sequential medications that have to be run via IV. Each one ran over an hour. The machines beep like a crazy alarm when they are being loaded, 5 minutes before they end, and then when they end. Then they have to flush the medications with some saline and the whole beeping process goes on again. Finally at 5 am Matthew and I fell asleep. At 6 (before I was completely awake) I see the floor tech taking off all of Matthew's EKG leads so that he can go down for a CXR. Matthew was awake again and crying because, well let me see: HE WAS TIRED. I refused the cxr and told them it could easily be done during the day when he was awake. As soon as I refused the Xray the resident comes in to examine him and his biggest question: How is Matthew's mental status today? Well let me tell you ....HE IS EXHAUSTED! I ask him to please arrange the schedule so that he can atleast have 6 hours of uninterrupted time. He tells me he will work on it and that Matt should be able to sleep until 8:30 when his morning meds are due (ie. we start it all over again). No sooner does he leave when the nurse walks in and tells me he has morning labs at 7:30.

What an eye opener of a night! If this is how his last week in the hospital has been I can sum it up really easy: Sleep deprivation, starvation, disorientation (drugs), and pain. Sounds more like a week at Guantanamo. Its amazing he is alive. Its amazing he is healing.

Final thoughts: Obviously their do not disturb sign needs larger font. Oh, and lets just hope that he pees today. Another 3 hour urology-Foley fight just doesn't sound very appealing today.