One of the first things I grabbed before I left the house to drive up to the hospital on Sunday was Pete's cell phone charger. As soon as I got there we plugged in his phone. Unfortunately, after the phone was charged he unplugged it from the charger, but did not unplug the charger from the wall, so consequently it was still there when we exited.
We realized it once we were home so I called the hospital and tried, unsuccessfully, to talk to someone who could understand what I was saying. I decided to wait until the next day and see if I could get through to an English speaking person with some level of intelligence.
I was able to speak with a woman who said she was the clerk at the nurses' station that handled the room that Pete had been in. I explained about the charger and she was able to locate it in short order and assured me that it would be waiting at her desk on Thursday when I promised her I would be able to retrieve it.
Thursday was Pete's followup appointment for blood work and vitals checkup at the Beth Israel Cancer Center. There was a steady rain as we drove into the city. They drew the blood but a short time later, D came over to Pete and sent him back to the lab for a do-over; there was a problem with a high potassium reading and they wanted to recheck it. She came in a short time after that and told us that it was going to be a while because they were having technical problems with the machinery that performs the test.
 |
| This is Pete's charger |
I took this as a good opportunity to jog over to Beth Israel Medical Center to pick up the charger. The Cancer Center is on 15th between 8th & 9th; the Medical Center is on 16th, right off of 1st, just slightly over 1 mile apart. I pulled my hood over my head and set out on my jog/walk in the rain. It just happened that the resident who had seen Pete and been instrumental in securing his release was at the nurses' station when I got there, recognized me and asked what I needed. She graciously took the time to help look for the charger after I explained the situation. She and a nurse, one who had also been on duty when Pete was there on Sunday, did a bit of searching and found a zip-lock "bio-hazard" bag labeled "found in 6A" and containing a phone charger. Success! Or so I thought.
I jogged/walked back to the Cancer Center where Pete was still waiting to hear the results of the second blood draw. I was pretty much soaked from head to toe but fortunately it wasn't a bitterly cold day, temps were in the low 50's, and I was able to dry off a bit. It wasn't too long after that D gave Pete the new results and we were on our way back home.
 |
| This is what was in the bag |
Once in the house I handed Pete the recovered charger but when he took it out of the plastic bag he found that it was not the charger he had left behind. His was labeled with his name and it was a 2-piece charger that plugs into either an outlet or a USB port; this one is a generic wall charger. Why did someone switch chargers? I guess they preferred Pete's charger to the one they had. At least he did get a charger and it does work with his phone.
A and D had told Pete that he needed to have follow-up blood work today. Since he had an appointment with his local oncologist, Dr W, this afternoon, they agreed to let him have it done here and faxed to them. He got back a short time ago. His WBC has gone down, so he just put in a call to Dr R's team and is waiting for a return call. We may be heading back into the city tomorrow if they think there's a problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment