Beard

Here is a random story from the hospital.

All together, I probably had 18 or 19 IV's put in me during my stay, plus an arterial line to constantly monitor my blood pressure. That one hurt a fair bit more than an IV, because arteries have more nerve endings than viens (or so I hear). Usually IVs don't hurt very much at all - it's only for a second, really.

Some of mine really did - my veins got all aggravated from the Magnesium I was being dripped -the same drug that dropped my heart rate to 27 the first time they gave it to me. There was one point were the nurses just could not get an IV in me. They tried five times, over what felt like half an hour but was probably ten minutes. After the fifth time, they gave me a break to eat dinner. After that, a young nurse with a red beard hot-toweled my arm, and got an IV in, almost painlessly, on the first try. :)

I saw the same guy (who turned out to be super nice as well) at the end of the hallway as I got up (!) to have a shower. I must have still been a bit out of it because I waved enthusiastically and said, "Beard! Hi Beard! I love you Beard! You are amazing!" He seemed perfectly okay with my suggesting loudly that his given name was Beard. What a great guy. :)