The unexpected hospital stay, day 2

On Wednesday morning I got up and ordered breakfast, saw a nurse, met the pharmacist, and even got to take a shower and wear my own clothes! There's little I hate more than being stuck in a hospital gown, even though I had asked for pajamas, which were promptly supplied. In my experience, women are hardly ever offered pj's while in the hospital. Who cares if they are sizes too big and inches too long? Pajamas do a better job of covering your butt than open-backed gowns.

Speaking of the pharmacist. I take a number of prescription meds and had the presence of mind to ask Rik to bring the original containers to me. On Tuesday night, a nurse offered me Zocor, a drug I do not take. So I refused to take it. I did take all my regular meds from my own bottles. The next morning the pharmacist explained that hospital practice was to dispense meds to patients from the in-house pharmacy and would I go with the flow, so to speak. I told him about the Zocor mixup and he told me it was their substitute for another drug I take that Swedish doesn't stock. (Why hadn't anyone told ME this?) Well, I didn't see any reason to try a new drug with unknown side effects for only a few days, so I told him I'd rather take my own.

Then the pharmacist told me that the nurse would have to dispense any drugs I take and watch me take them. The nurses would observe that I was taking lovastatin from my own supply and double check the bottle. I asked about pain meds. I had a low fever the day before and it took 90 minutes to get some tylenol for a headache. We negotiated that I would ask the nurse for pain meds if I needed them and that I would wait a more reasonable 20-30 minutes for someone to bring it to me. If it took longer, I had his permission to take from my own supply.

Oy. All this before breakfast!