Omid-X to agamem-X (his father)
[side comment from Henry Dimplefink: This is the second part of the email, the first having been published last week - Click here to see
Anyways, back to Henry in Paris. One day, as he was pondering what to do with his professional life (he had worked in banking and financial markets most of his adult life), he found out he needed a serious surgery, and he went in. He told me an amusing story about his experience at the hospital while he was recovering post operation.
After he «woke up» and realized he was not dead and not in heaven, he noticed his hands were tied to the bed. He was in a dark room with a number of machines and displays, and he heard the faint voices of two people talking about their lives and their feelings at work. As he shook his hands and made noises, in spite of having a tube in his mouth, he noticed the silhouette of an individual walking over to him, mentioning repeatedly «Henry est réveillé» (Henry is awake). He then noticed an angel-like face with long blond hair and a smile coming close to him, and saying softly «bonjour Henry, je m’appelle Paulette, je suis votre infirmière dédiée pour ce matin, et vous êtes en salle de réanimation de l’hopital» (hello Henry, my name is Paulette, I am your dedicated nurse for this morning, and you are in the reanimation ward - a super Intensive Care Unit which is one level higher than ICU).
For the following 3-4 days, Paulette and a male nurse, Samuel, became his companions when his family was not visiting. Then Paulette announced that she was going on holidays to Brazil for 2 weeks, and Samuel said he was switching to another service. It was time for Henry to switch wards as well, and he was moved to the ICU, while waiting for a standard hospital bed.
By the time he moved to the ICU, Henry had gathered strength, and could move around, even though he still had a couple of tubes and devices attached to him. That evening, by the time his family left, Henry was comfortably settled in his room, happy about having achieved a positive progression. The nurse had helped him fix his phone charger, and they had agreed to maintain his dose of sleeping pill. All he had to do was to have his dinner, take his medications, and sleep until 7, the following morning. Little did he know that there would be a person two doors down who was going to scream a good part of the night, in spite of careful attention from the nurses.
As Henry was preparing his old iPod (a device similar to our ancient oGdy) for sleeping, he heard the neighbor screaming for the first time. Then the sounds became more frequent and of higher pitch, and that really knocked Henry’s head off. As he was contemplating what to do, the night nurse came in and said that she needed to get some fresh blood for testing. She needed oxygenated blood, so only from the arteries. She tried the one that was still installed on Henry’s wrist, but it did not work. So she took it out and re-inserted it, at which time Henry felt a sharp pain in his wrist and screamed. The nurse apologized for the pain, which apparently is normal when you go for blood from arteries.
She then brought a new needle and tried again, but she failed again to find blood. The sharp pain and Henry’s shriek, however, did not fail. The nurse then turned to Henry and apologized again and said that she would go and get a third one. This time Henry said «No» decisively. The nurse reminded him that in this case they will not be able to maintain the real-time monitoring of his blood oxygen level. Henry told them he is fine with it, as he had observed pretty much a constant 98-99% all throughout his recovery.
Just as he was again getting ready to sleep, his neighbor shrieked. Henry could not tell, however, if he was screaming from pain, or whether he was suffering from delirium due to medication. So he turned side-way, put his earset on, and launched Dido’s music on his iPod. That’s how Henry spent a night with Dido at the ICU in Paris.
From Dallas, Texas - 21 October, 2019 (Earth)