Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2016 - Letter W

Disney World Vacation:

  Planning, Prepping, Packing and Postponing a trip of a lifetime and things I learned along the way.

What, Where, When, Why and sometimes Who- Questions, questions and never any answers. 

Alison was admitted very late that Tuesday night, with the help of her husband (the admitting people said they had no info from her doctor). I stayed back at her house to unpack my stay at her house suitcase because I realized I was going to be there for a while. I would be driving back and forth to keep her company and translate the hospitalese for her (I am a former RN and have personally been in hospitals more times for operations and procedures than you can shake a thermometer at). 

Alison ended up staying there until Saturday. They kept her in Quarantine, with everyone entering her room gowned, masked and gloved, until late Thursday when the Infectious Control doctor came in to announce that "It is Viral", and took out her iv with the meds in case she was bacterial and got rid of the masks. He acted as if he had saved her single-handedly. He came back several times during the next days to confirm as other test results came back that "it's Viral." That has become a catch phrase for us.

Although everyone was wonderful during her stay, no one explained about what the illness really was. I had my daughter and husband google information about it for us because I was vague on the details. It is an infection in the covering of the brain- the meninges. The infection causes swelling and puts pressure on the brain and the nerves serving the brain. That is where the intense headache and confusion was originating. It also affected her ears and eyes, thus the loss of hearing and sensitivity to bright lights.  

She was given meds to reduce the swelling and some pain meds to dull the headache and some to help her sleep and some other stuff- well you get the picture. She found no matter how hard you try to sleep in the hospital there is always someone there in a mask to scare the heck out of you by waking you to see if you need anything or give you a pill.

I found despite being a less than eager driver, I could make the trip to and from (in the dark- oh my) the hospital with ease. I spent hours keeping up with family and friends who were stunned to hear Alison had Meningitis, "where would she have gotten that?" I remembered to ask all the questions that Alison and I had thought of and translate the garbled answers back to her. We did find out near the end of her stay that this hospital almost never saw cases of Meningitis so Alison was a rarity.

 Best of all, I had found a Tim Horton's Coffee Shop (like Starbucks but way better) at the entrance of the hospital so I had coffee and food at hand for both of us. Now if there had been a Cold Stone Creamery, I would have considered moving in.