Day 43 (December 3)

Mornings here are the toughest part of hospitalization for me. I absolutely despise getting up early. Unless I’m getting paid or if I’m headed out on a hike, I prefer to lie in bed until at least a reasonable hour of 8am. Anything earlier than that is bordering on the obscene. Now that the sun is rising later and later, when they turn on the hallway lights at 6am a bright fluorescent glow drifts over my sleeping space, nudging me awake. I groan, covering my eyes with a fleece jacket before once again joining the world of dreams. At 7am, the nurse comes in to say Good Morning and to ask us if there’s been any change in our condition. Is this really necessary? I mean they could enter the room quietly, sneak into our sleeping space, and softly and stealthily check for a pulse. Better yet, just hook us up to cardiac monitors and only enter the room when we use the nurse call button. Isn’t that the purpose for the button? I always feign sleep so when the nurses enter my space they always end up saying “Good Mor….Oh, he’s still asleep!”, before walking away dejectedly. I manage a few more winks before 7:30am, when the trash lady comes in to say “Sorry” for taking out our garbage. If I’m feeling particularly heavy-eyed, I’ll sneak in another nap before breakfast is delivered at 8am.

Now you can see why I feel so stressed out in the hospital. Imagine waking up every morning at 6am, weekends included. In my childhood I had to wake up at 6:30am, and that was a mighty struggle. Along with my slumber struggles , my posture is taking a licking. The stretching seems to help, but the back discomfort is screaming for the magical hands of Kanako, who can knead my muscles back to health.

Speaking of kneading myself back to health, my test results are in. I tested pa-pa-pa-pa positive, as in positively NEGATIVE! Woo hoo! Dr. Tamura has approved my release, and there’s only one thing standing in the way of my freedom: the health department. Yes, the very same people that I lost my temper with a few weeks ago. It turns out they have the final decision about when patients get released. 9 times out of 10 they agree with the doctors recommendation, but trusty nurse Sakai-san said that they sometimes request an additional negative test just to make sure that the patient is completely safe. My doctor put a call into the health department but they haven’t returned with their verdict. Are they all sitting around a conference table deciding on my fate, or was the person in charge of making those decisions out of the office? Looks like I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get the final answer. I’ve been left hanging so many times over the past few weeks I’m starting to wonder if I should enter a limbo contest.

My sputum test results