Last week in his column Truett told about losing our car in the parking garage. I don't know if he told you that he lost it twice, but he did. Once he forgot which floor he had parked on and the other time he forgot which garage he had parked in. Of course, it is always funny to me when he misplaces something and gets all confused when he is looking for it.
Also, he told you about the nurse yanking the IV bag, which caused it to come open and the liquid to spill out all over him. I admit that wasn't funny then, for I had just had a bad experience with the nurse trying to get the needle in to my arm to start the IV, but later when he thought about it,it did become funny. Poor Truett had sticky liquid all over his hair, face, and nice sport coat. He was laughing about it, but I could tell that he really didn't think it was very funny.
Of course, Truett's stories about the people who hit him up for hand-outs were funny to me. He would be so aggravated with the beggars, but, being the kind-hearted soul that he is, he always gave them a dollar.
My own funny episodes at the hospital began with an intern who approached me the day that we had to go there to do all the pre-operation medical procedures. As I was waiting to have my chest x-ray done, an intern came up to Truett and me, identified himself, and proceeded to explain to us a study that he and some other doctors at Vanderbilt were conducting that would be done over a 20-year period. They were studying some patients who had a background of stroke-related heart problems in their family history, and, because my mother had by-pass surgery, a stroke three days later, ending with her death six weeks later, the doctor asked me to participate in the study. They hoped to learn whether some patients were inclined to have a stroke during by-pass surgery because of their genetic background.
The doctor explained that what it involved was simply taking samples of my blood each day and removing some of my tissue during the surgery. These were necessary for them to study my DNA over the next 20 years.
Truett and I thought that this was a beneficial study and if it could help someone in years to come, I should participate. So I agreed to take part in it.
Well, a couple of days after my surgery, the intern came to my room to see how I was doing. He casually mentioned that during my surgery, the surgical team had forgotten to take the tissue that he had requested. He said, "I don't suppose that you would be willing..." I said, "No, absolutely not!" There was no way that I was going back under that knife!
That is another incident that wasn't funny at the time, but since then Truett and I have laughed about it. Did that doctor actually believe that I would agree to being wheeled back into surgery just for them to collect some tissue samples? I thought doctors were smarter than that!
On the day that they were moving me out of intensive care and into my room, another funny thing happened. Two very young nursing assistants, a young man and a young lady, were helping me move from my bed to the gurney. That skimpy hospital gown was going in 90 directions and all my private parts were being exposed. I was trying to pull the thing down and around to maintain some modesty when the young man said, "Mrs. Langston, don't worry about that old gown. We are used to those things here." I replied, "Maybe so, but I just don't want to scare anybody." Well, he laughed and laughed. I believe everybody on that hall must have heard him.
One of my favorite people there was the young man who started my rehab. program. His name was Will and he was from Alabama, which, of course, made him special to me. He had told me to walk up and down those halls twice a day each day. Because I needed someone to walk with me, I waited for Truett to help me each time. One afternoon we walked down a hall that wasn't part of our usual prescribed routine. On our way back to my room, I saw Will at the nurses' station and I said, "Will, I just added a half mile to my walking schedule." His reply was, "And your nose is growing, Miss Barbara!" That was when everyone up and down the hall could hear me laughing!
Another funny incident involved a nurse who had come into my room to give my medicines to me. While I was taking them, she was studying each one. She said, "Why do they have you taking this potassium?" I replied that I didn't know. She said, "Well, I guess it's because your heart does flip-flops." Boy, that was really a thoughtful remark to make to someone who had just had a double by-pass surgery, wasn't it? Of course, Truett and I got a good laugh out of that, too, when I told him what she had said.Well, laughter is the best medicine, they say. If this is true, I will be very healthy before long, for I do like laugh, and maybe I will even be the healthiest person in Macon County for I can find something to laugh about every day!
Before I close, I would like to thank Lee Ann Anderson, Fannie Perrigo, Mary Rushing, Everette and Pat Wilburn, Willa Smith, Carol Kempf, and Gerry Smalling for their kindness to me and their thoughtfulness. I have been so blessed to have such considerate friends as they are, as well as those I mentioned last week. God has been so good to me to give me such friends and I am grateful for each one.
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