Something in the air?

I took JE to watch The Simpson's movie Saturday morning, and after dropping him with the in-laws, Liz and I decided to call Xinh to see if she wanted to see The Bourne Ultimatum Sunday morning. I got her voicemail so I left a msg asking if she wanted to watch the movie with us, unless she wasn't feeling well. I don't know why I said that.

Shortly after leaving the message my phone rang. It was Xinh. She didn't sound well. She was calling from hospital. After having abdominal pains Monday she'd gone home but she wasn't better on Tuesday, so she called her doctor who had called in sick as well. Wednesday, feeling even worse, she went in to ER and stayed there almost all day without being seen. Late in the evening someone who'd been there several hours prior to her also hadn't been seen, so Xinh went home and returned the next day. Finally she was examined and checked in under suspicion of appendicitis. She signed a form for a laparoscopic appendectomy with the option to open her up in case they found something more serious, which they did. They found a perforated intestine and an abscess the size of a cantaloupe, which is not a small fruit.

Liz and I pretty much canceled any plans and headed off to the hospital. Xinh was recovering ok but had not been able to rest because she couldn't get in to a comfortable position and the nurses hadn't been willing to go through the rigmarole Xinh felt was required to get her into a comfortable position. After raising and lowering Xinh's bed a few times, rolling her back and forth a couple of times, sliding pillows under various parts of her anatomy (I'm a good friend, but Liz took care of that assignment), we finally got Xinh into a position in which she felt comfortable.

With the battery in her cell phone running low, and it being Xinh's only contact to the outside world, we called her friend Natey (who'd already taken Xinh's dog to the kennel) and he stopped by her apartment and picked up her charger and came in. Another friend, Susan, also stopped by, and with four of us there now (five including Xinh) Liz and I decided to take our leave.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the room next to Xinh's. She's staying on the 6th floor of the hospital, and the room next to her we felt should have gone the same way of the 13th floor in most buildings.


Yup, that's the room next to Xinh's room at the hospital >:)

Notice how blurry it is? It's like it didn't want me taking its picture ;)